Game, Set, and Match!
by soulsborne123
Summary: "Idiot." She looked up at her savior and saw him readjust the giant sports bag on his shoulder. He was watching her with a furious scowl, his blue eyes narrow, stern and cutting, expressing an obvious disgust at her clumsiness. The gratitude she was just about to express quickly died in her throat. [Sports AU, but full of fluffy romance]
1. Meeting

**Chapter 1**

Despite already being a month into her first year of high school, Taniyama Mai still felt like a complete outsider to her school's community and was sorely disappointed with herself for a lack of progress with fitting in. For the past six years she lived at the nearby orphanage, which, regrettably, required their orphan tenants to volunteer their time with daily housekeeping chores so that she had been unable to participate in any club or school event activities.

As soon as she turned sixteen she was finally able to legally move out to her own place, receiving a modest living stipend thanks to her deceased parents' savings and some monetary help from some distant relatives, and she foolishly entertained high hopes that her high school life would be much different. However, she failed to take into account just how much her circumstance crippled her development during her formative years, and she now found herself without any talent, nor particular interests. Even just the prospect of choosing which club to join was impossible. Her best bet was to just follow whatever Michiru and Keiko decide, both of whom she had been close friends with since middle school, but sadly, she found out that growth spurts could surprisingly wedge a great distance between them, physically and figuratively. Who knew?

Keiko and Michiru, who both had always been bigger than her to begin with, had grown considerably taller and were now skirting the 168 cm mark, while she stayed at a measly 154 cm, hardly any different from her height in middle school. By the third week of school, feeling better settled in, Michiru excitedly suggested they all join the volleyball club together. Mai was excited at first, especially at seeing both of them so enthusiastic about the idea, but they quickly realized that Mai's short stature made her unfit to even step foot anywhere near the court. When they showed up for a trial run during the team's practice one day, Mai couldn't help but feel severely outclassed and felt incredibly silly standing among giants, more powerful and agile than her and she went home that day feeling more hopeless than ever.

Her friends, of course, felt bad about it and suggested they look for a different club altogether; Mai argued that she didn't want them to miss out on something they'd enjoy just for her sake. The entire night the three of them argued over the phone, although eventually that turned out to be a non-issue after all because Mai's luck didn't even spare her a chance. The next day she found that talent wasn't the only thing she was lacking- apparently she also lacked _brains_. The two had no choice but to yield after Mai showed them her failing marks on their English test, which meant she had no time for any after school activities except remedial lessons for at least two weeks until she passed the next test.

A full week of remedial classes later and Mai was finally making some headway with her English material. She didn't just want to barely pass for her next time, she wanted to at least score a 75%.

When the bell rang Mai sighed and sunk into her chair as one by one her classmates left the room, ready to begin their second set of activities for the day. Michiru and Keiko waved her goodbye and headed out to the gym, leaving her and three fellow students in the classroom. After greeting them with a hello, rather than fraternizing, she instead excused herself and raced out of the classroom, knowing that she only had ten minutes to herself before the frighteningly strict Kana-sensei arrived for the remedial classes.

She stopped by her locker first, replaced her indoor shoes with her outdoor ones, and then continued running at full speed to the vending machines just outside the school grounds. She had been doing this ritually since last week. It felt refreshing and made her feel like she was doing some sort of sport, and as long as she hurried she always made it back on time with two minutes to spare. She inserted the exact change, pressed the button for her favorite drink, and watched as the tiny spring-shaped appendage pushed the can tumbling down the chute.

After gulping its contents down, she threw the can in the nearby recycling bin and raced back up the stairs, trying her best to balance agility and safety by taking it only one step at a time (she tried taking it by two steps once and she almost tripped and died), but as soon as she reached the top and rounded the corner, she bumped head first into someone much taller and sturdier than her, sending her small frame flying backwards in a rebound and was in danger of falling down the flight of stairs.

It all happened in a blur and she had absolutely no clue what just happened, only that she was surprisingly not dead, was suddenly enveloped in someone's tight embrace, and her uniform felt sticky and wet from the front. She was dragged away from the stairs and unceremoniously let go. Mai clutched at her wet chest and tried to steady her furiously beating heart, blinking slowly to let her mind catch up to the events.

A sharp, deep voice cut through her thoughts. "Idiot."

She looked up at her savior and saw him readjust the giant sports bag on his shoulder. He was watching her with a furious scowl, his blue eyes narrow, stern and cutting, expressing an obvious disgust at her clumsiness. The gratitude she was just about to express quickly died in her throat.

The other boy she originally bumped into quickly jumped in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her around to inspect if she had gotten hurt somewhere, and cried, "Oh, crap, I'm so sorry Miss! Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. "N-no, I'm fine. No worries." Mai noticed he was carrying an almost empty bottle of sports drink.

The boy readjusted his glasses and gave a long, dramatic sigh of relief. "Damn, that almost gave me a heart attack. I need a drink!" He eyed the bottle in his hand with a sad expression and sloshed it around before tipping whatever little remained into his mouth. Turning to the scowling boy beside him he exclaimed, "Plus one-hundred cool points for you, Boss. Gotta ding you for thirty, though, since you didn't do it cleanly. Still, this puts you at second place! Congratulations! I'm still first though." He laughed and pointed at his friend's ruined navy blue jersey. "Yeah, don't worry, _pretty boy's_ got extra shirts lying around in case he gets too stinky, so you can probably just borrow one."

She mutely turned her gaze to the scowling boy once again. He wasn't looking at her now, but was studying his ruined jersey, which she noticed was also wet. Putting two and two together, she understood that she must have bumped into the glasses boy, who then spilled his drink on scowling boy next to him, who then pulled her close to him to save her from falling. Mai opened her mouth to say something, but scowling boy just turned and descended the stairs without a word.

"Oi, Boss! Wait! Jeez," glasses guy called out, bowing to her apologetically one last time and running down after him, leaving a dazed Mai alone at the top of the stairs.

"Taniyama-san! Are you planning on attending remedial class, or are you planning on just slacking off out there?"

Mai gave a start and turned around, finding Kana-sensei standing outside of the classroom with her arms crossed. With a groan, she ran toward her and apologized profusely for being tardy.

-000-

Gene laughed out loud and slapped his thighs, pointedly ignoring his twin brother glaring down at him. He was sitting down on one of the wooden benches in the club room, his conversation with Yasuhara becoming more animated by the minute. In the corner, John and Sakauchi were changing into their jerseys, warily keeping an eye on Oliver who had been standing stock still next to his twin with his outstretched hand.

"Wait, wait. So Noll actually managed to touch a girl?"

"No, not ' _touched'._ Practically squeezed her close. Man, you should have seen it! Boss instinctively reached out to grab her hand and then pulled her tight against his chest, heroically saving her from certain death." Yasuhara proceeded to dramatically re-enact the scenario, even the part where Oliver had to brace an arm against the wall for balance, to get more of a rise out of his friend. "He was like some sort of black knight in shining armor. That move was easily worth a hundred points, I tell you. But then he got her all wet."

Gene crinkled his nose and playfully punched his friend. "Okay, let's not get lewd. You're being disrespectful."

"No, no. I mean literally. Come on, man."

Having enough of their stupidity, Oliver pushed Gene aside roughly and pulled out an extra jersey from his brother's bag. Just as Yasuhara said earlier, Gene did like to keep spare clean shirts for whatever inane reasons he couldn't fathom. Surely all that space could be better used to store extra grips, balls, or even a spare racket? He took his own shirt off and without wringing it dry, stuffed it in Gene's bag before slipping into the clean Jersey.

"Hey, hey! My clothes will get wet!"

Oliver turned around and icily stared at the two troublemakers. Gene and Yasuhara shivered in fear and gulped, knowing that the angrier Oliver was, the quieter he became. And he wasn't talking now. With one last imperious look, Oliver turned around and exited the club room, slamming the door loudly behind him.

After a few seconds of silence, John finally spoke, his voice softly admonishing. "Really guys. You shouldn't tease him too much."

Gene sighed. "Yeah, I guess we went too far. He really does hate any sort of physical contact, especially from random girls."

He took out Noll's shirt and wrung it out himself, hanging it on the bench to dry hopefully at least by the time practice ended. A few of his clothes also got ruined, so he took those out as well. Then with a sudden laugh, he continued, "Which makes it _so_ funny. Why did he hug her if he's just going to be angry about it?"

Yasu chirped, "Maybe his repressed-self thought she was pretty cute so he instinctively did it."

Gene laughed and clapped Yasuhara in the back. "Pfft, yeah right, Noll thinking girls are cute."

"I know, right? What am I saying? Honestly, I'm glad for his superior reflex because otherwise the girl would be in a hospital right now. It was almost funny how disgusted he looked. I do feel sorry for the girl though; I didn't have the chance to explain it's not _her_ that he found disgusting, but _himself_ for getting caught up in the moment. Boss is so cute when he gets shy." The two sniggered.

John and Sakauchi looked at each other and shook their heads. Sakauchi warned them, "You guys are asking to die early if you keep on messing with Oliver-san that way, you know," but the two paid his wisdom no heed.

"Boss' tactic might actually have some merit though. Girls dig the _tsundere_ types."

"Damn, you might be right. So you were saying he's at seventy points now?"

"Yep. Dinged him because it wasn't perfect."

"Well how much points have I got?"

Yasuhara pretended to count in his head. "Sixty five. You know for having such godly beautiful faces, you guys aren't really living up to expectations right now."

* * *

 **A/N 12/8/17:** _I'm editing all the chapters for readability. They're just minor changes. I'm getting ready to publish the next half of the series so I wanted to make sure the writing is consistent. Cheers!_


	2. Problems

**A/N:** _The bolded words are spoken in English._

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

She squinted, focusing intently on the flurry of movements going on in front of her. The girls were jumping left and right; most were swinging at the empty air, but a well tossed ball would eventually connect with someone's palm and a resounding ' _pak_ ' would send it hurtling toward the opposite side of the net. Then the opposing teams would dive down to the floor with no regard to their body, trying in earnest to keep the ball afloat.

Mai frowned in disbelief. So not only were the players expected to constantly jump high in the air, they were also expected to fight low on the ground, too. It was a physically taxing sport, for sure. She felt winded just watching the girls rally. Beside her, Michiru sighed.

"I wish I can be a regular."

Mai turned to look at her, and from the corner of her eye, watched as the score was updated five-to-eight. It was their advantage, she was told. The whistle blew and a girl Mai had occasionally seen around the school grounds moved to the back to serve the ball. She did it very well, it seemed, for the opposing team scrambled and failed to return properly, while their entire team (Michiru and Keiko included, which startled her a little) cried out in unison, 'nice serve!'

"Are first years not allowed to be a regular?" she asked naively.

"No, anyone can be a regular. You just have to be good, like Kasai-san," Keiko answered, motioning her head toward the girl who just served. "She became a regular in her first year. Now she's our ace and she's only a second year student!"

Mai hummed in amazement. Kasai-san was tall and athletically built; her demeanor commanding and determined. Turning to her friends, she said sincerely, "You'll get there soon, I'm sure of it. You guys work too hard." A hand ruffled her hair and Mai looked up to see Michiru smirking at her.

"Yeah, we'll do you proud. Promise. By the way, how's remedial class going? Keiko and I haven't been able to hang out with you as much, but since we have a match today we probably will get a day off from practice tomorrow. We can help you if you need."

Mai shook her head. "No worries, I've been working hard myself. Today's actually my last remedial class so we were let out early. It's why I was able to come watch you guys."

"Oh okay, if you're sure. Good luck! I think it's best if you don't cram anything today to let your mind rest."

"Yeah, agreed!"

-0-

After their first practice match against the other school, the volleyball team got called for a victory huddle. Before leaving her, Michiru said they would be getting critiques on their plays, figuring out what worked and what didn't, and possibly even go for a few drills before sundown and urged Mai to head home before them. She congratulated them one more time and walked away, happily waving them good bye. However, although she was happy for their sake, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. It seemed so much fun having team mates and going over game tactics! If only she could find a place where she could belong.

"After I pass this test I can finally honestly consider my options," she said to herself with determination. Suddenly she heard a sharp sound echo around to her left. Ten seconds later, she heard it again. In a steady interval she heard ' _thuck_ '. ' _Thuck_ '. ' _Thuck_.' It was undeniably the sound of a ball and since the tennis courts were nearby, she figured it must be someone playing tennis. Having never really gone around this area of the school before, all Mai could do was rely on the sound and follow it. Eventually she saw courts, the green-painted floor standing in a sharp contrast against the red, and a lone boy on one side of the court. She clenched her fists as she realized that it was not just any boy-it was _scowling boy_. Next to him was a basket full of tennis balls.

She approached silently, watching transfixed as he tossed the ball high up in the air, with his keen eyes following it like a hawk. The left hand he used to toss the ball he brought straight down, folding it in toward his chest gracefully like a ballerina, and in the same fluid movement bent his knees, arched his back slightly backwards, then sprung up in the air like a spring in a recoil, with his right arm swinging powerfully in an arc and making a resounding ' _thuck_ ' as his racket made a square contact with the ball. His hair swayed forward, following the direction of his movement, as he watched the ball whiz straight to the corner of the square on the opposite side, diagonal from his position. Mai assumed that whatever he did was 'in'.

"A-amazing..." she whispered to herself, entirely mesmerized by his movements. She didn't know how many times he repeated the action with similar results. Before she knew it, the basket next to him was already empty. How long had she stayed just watching him do whatever he was doing?

"So ' _scowling bo_ y' is a tennis player," she mused. Then remembering how rude and mean he had been toward her, she suddenly became really annoyed at how he could be both handsome and incredibly good at the sport. The damn boy looked cool! Even the way he picked up stray balls was cool. It annoyed her so much that she decided to turn on her heel and leave with a huff.

Why did it seem like everybody else have something they were good at, while she was still floundering around trying to find her 'calling' like an idiot?

-000-

He didn't want to be the first to acknowledge her presence. He figured if she wanted something from him, then she would call out to him eventually. However after he finished his basket, she just left without a word. What in the world had she wanted?

The creak of the gate opening and closing barely preceded his twin's cutting voice, anger evident in its tone, making Oliver shut his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose.

" **Noll! What the hell are you doing!** "

Gene was definitely going to be annoying again so he just ignored him and wordlessly continued picking up the balls he conveniently kicked into the corner.

His twin continued on, "You were supposed to meet us at the library, so why the hell are you here grinding away at your cartilage by practicing your serves! Don't tell me you've somehow got it in your idiot mind that you wanted to show off in front of that girl just now?"

Oliver rolled his eyes and made up his mind that he was now only going to address future replies to Yasuhara, who was standing beside his brother. "You said you'd finish by five-thirty. I was at the library until then but neither of you showed up."

Yasuhara sheepishly apologized, saying his the student council meeting went twenty minutes over. "Then it didn't help that I had to go searching around for Gene since he finished his remedial class before my meeting ended and had wandered off."

But Oliver wasn't moved. "So as you can see, instead of pointlessly wasting my time waiting for you two, I decided to head out here and use my time wisely."

Gene grabbed his right forearm and squeezed it tight, just slightly below and to the left of the elbow, causing Oliver to wince in pain and jerk his hand away.

"No, Noll, not wisely. Your elbow is still obviously injured, and your shoulders and knees can't have healed that fast so you should be taking it easy, otherwise you'll just end up making it worse! For someone so smart I don't understand why you can't get that through your thick head!"

"I am already being forced to take it easy. As you are well aware, I've been demoted to be your doubles partner."

Gene grabbed him by the collar and hissed, "You had better be careful about being an ass to me, Noll."

Yasuhara promptly jumped in between, trying to pry the two brothers apart and jovially commenting in a sing song, "Whoa, wow! Okay both of you guys are scaring poor little me here. Remember that children are often the ones who suffer the most in domestic problems." The three of them stayed stock-still for several intense seconds, neither one of the twins willing to back down.

"Play nice," Yasuhara said once again, his voice now low and serious, all traces of his previous playfulness gone. Slowly, the twins backed off and Gene's grip loosened on Oliver's shirt, but their eye contact never broke.

Oliver was the first to break the continuing silence. "We are not in any position to be slacking in our current situation. Me being injured forces you to move around more than usual, and with your remedial classes cutting into our practice time, we haven't been able to sync up our doubles play. Yasuhara-san is forced to play outside his comfort as his usual play style and stamina is not compatible for singles position. Takigawa-san still needs to polish up his ball control, and Lin will have to play above his usual level so that's difficult for him to manage. The only people unaffected by the reorganization is John and Sakauchi-san, but securing only one point out of five is not enough to get us through. So tell me, when will all of you finally start to take this seriously?" Oliver gripped his racket tighter. "We are not the same strong team we were last year. Can any of us be confident we'd even get through the district matches?"

When neither of them rose to answer his challenge, Oliver scoffed and resumed picking up the balls. Eventually Gene stepped up and silently began helping him out as well, although the two still stubbornly refused to even look at each other.

Yasuhara silently sighed and began helping out as well, and was not at all surprised when he cast a glance toward Gene and saw the pained expression of guilt and sorrow evident on his face.


	3. Narcissist

**Chapter 3**

Ten minutes before his alarm was even due to ring, Oliver jerked awake to a loud clatter. When he opened his eyes, he was painfully assaulted by his bright overhead fluorescent light, and to his right, Gene's string of curses before finishing it up with an unapologetic, 'whoops!' A mounting irritation bubbled up at the back of his head, knowing there was really no reason to him having been disturbed from his slumber other than the fact that his idiotic twin just wanted to pester him.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and shut his eyes back with a scowl, pulling his blanket up to his chin and turned his body to face the wall.

"I've made it so my uniform is easily accessed, so there's really no reason for you to make such a goddamn mess in there. How do you even manage to go through your own set?" he grumbled, his voice still raspy from sleep.

Gene just waved him off flippantly and didn't even bother facing him. "Oh yeah, I'm also borrowing socks, Noll, k?"

"Go away."

Gene only laughed. Once he found what he was looking for, he folded the garments against his chest and sauntered cheerily toward the door. "Want me to shut the lights?"

"As if I can go back to bed again after all this."

"Okay, I'll leave them on then. I get to shower first today so you go help Luella with breakfast." Oliver rolled his eyes when Gene clicked his tongue at him and gave him a wink (the idiot had once told him it was deadly when used around girls). With a sigh he rolled out of bed and neatly folded up his blanket, figuring that waking up ten minutes early wasn't as bad as that one time his stupid brother disturbed him a full hour early.

Despite his irritation, he found himself unable to resist an amused smirk from gracing his lips. Eugene had always hated getting into fights with him, and their spat the night before had left both of them with a bad taste in their mouth. After practice they had walked home together in complete silence and never even spoke a word during dinner, which alarmed Martin and Luella. However, they left them to it, no doubt trusting he and Gene would eventually work it out between them as they always do. And they had been correct: their recent interaction was proof of that. Annoying him as usual had always been Gene's solution, his way of pushing disagreements past them and making peace without wasting words, and Oliver was glad for it. He really couldn't handle the idea of having to _talk_ problems over and being all sappy about it.

-000-

As soon as lunch time started, Gene jumped up from his seat and stretched, groaning in pleasure as his joints popped in place, while Oliver and Yasuhara both stood up with more grace. Oliver told them to go on ahead as he planned to have a short chat with John and Sakauchi from the class next door, and since both Gene and Yasuhara were hungry and itching to get out of the stuffy classroom, they were more than eager to head out.

He followed out after them and branched off toward the classroom next door, unobtrusively poking his head in to search for his teammates. Seeing them engaged in conversation at the far corner, Oliver politely called out to the person nearest him.

"Excuse me, could you please call Brown-san and Sakauchi-san out here?"

The girl he spoke to blushed and nodded earnestly, obediently obliging his request, all the while he maintained the frozen smile on his face. She hung around for a few seconds longer after she brought his teammates out to meet him, but when it became apparent she wasn't receiving anything else after his curt thanks, collapsed dramatically back into her chair. Oliver had to fight hard to keep his eyes from rolling, and as soon as the three of them stepped out in the hallway, dropped his facade.

He immediately began talking to them about an interesting drill that he read about the night before, thinking it would be particularly useful for the duo. Ever enthusiastic, both John and Sakauchi agreed that it sounded good in theory and were looking forward to trying it during practice later that day. By the time they finished, there were only a few people littering the hallway and Oliver excused himself, making his way to meet up with Gene and Yasuhara.

When he got to the second floor, he happened to cross path with _her_ again, although she still hadn't noticed him. He didn't know why his mind automatically decided to store away the fact that she came out of classroom 1-C, but figured his mind would soon discard such an inane factoid anyway and left it at that. The puzzling behavior she exhibited yesterday was still fresh in his mind, but he scoffed at the idea of him walking up to her in order to make small talk.

Unfortunately, his feet betrayed him and began moving on its own toward her and as soon as he realized it, he tried diverting his course, but it was too late. She had turned around and made eye contact, emitting some sound behind her throat that sounded like " _Geh!"_ upon recognizing him, before finally making up her mind to meet him halfway. He had no other choice but to see through his mistake.

She fidgeted and looked at him with her huge eyes. "Oh, i-it's you..."

That's fear, he thought fleetingly. He stopped a few steps away, thinking his towering height (he was already pushing 176 cm) over her puny frame must be putting her ill at ease. Not knowing what to say, he decided with, "You're that girl who bumped into Yasuhara-san."

"Ahh, so he is called Yasuhara-san?"

He didn't reply but instead continued on with his even tone, "You bumped into him because you were running up the stairs at full speed. I hope you are aware of how stupid that, knowing there's a blind corner at the top?"

The girl sighed and looked away, muttering with some hint of annoyance, "Yeah, I know. You called me an idiot then." When he didn't respond, she let out a fake cough. "Anyway, uhm, you never let me thank you properly for that one time-or apologize- I'm not quite sure which exactly you needed from me," she stated, her voice steadily gaining confidence, "I'm not sure which one you want from me, but I at least want to thank you. I figure I would have gotten quite hurt if it weren't for you. So before you run away again, I just want to clearly thanks, alright?"

Oliver clenched his jaw on one side, curiosity definitely piqued. What had happened? Her previous fear was obviously gone now as she was being quite feisty at the moment.

He found her attitude perplexing. When he saved her he had completely operated by instinct, then suddenly pushed her shaken form away after realizing what he had done. Based on previous experience, he believed the act would somehow make the girl think of him as her _savior_ and attach herself to him in the future, so he decided to cut that short. Seeing her at the courts yesterday made him think the girl really did end up falling for him and he was ready to shut her down completely, but she had just simply walked away not saying anything. Curiously enough, meeting her by chance today she had looked at him and said ' _geh'_. That was the sound of disgust, wasn't it? Then she was afraid of him and responded to him shyly, then she was friendly, then she got annoyed, then now she was thankful- but not the bashful kind of thankful as he expected. She was haughty. A crease formed on his forehead.

How did this girl's mind operate?

Mai clasped her hands behind her back, hiding her fidgeting fingers out of sight. He was unabashedly staring her down, which flustered her, and it didn't help that he was looking all too hauntingly handsome with his dark grey uniform, neatly pressed, buttoned all the way up to his neck in a very proper and posh way, which complimented his raven hair and piercingly blue eyes. For a few moments, she lost her composure and looked away. But then when he wouldn't read the atmosphere, she became irritated and decided to meet his gaze with a stern look of her own.

Eventually Oliver realized that he didn't particularly like her confidence right now.

"I was aware of you watching me yesterday," he said, voice laced with just a hint of amusement. The blush that quickly took over her face was exactly the response he wanted, but he could have done without her silent imitation of a feeding fish. He cocked his head to the side, "At first I thought you might have been a spy from another school trying to see what our team was up to-" though of course this was a lie since he had known it was her from the very beginning, "-but I realized my mistake. It's unlikely someone like you could be entrusted with recon." He watched in amusement as she balled up her tiny fists and practically smoked in anger.

"Someone like me?" she tried to repeat calmly. Mai clenched her fists. She was going to show him how _someone like her_ could shut his arrogant mouth. However, remembering that she _did_ owe him one, she decided she'd let this slide. She took a deep breath and plastered on a smile. "Yeah, I just happened to stop by and stayed to check out what was going on. I was curious since a number of people had told me our tennis team is actually really strong. I haven't really watched anyone play tennis before so I have no reference point, but you looked really cool and strong yesterday. That's great, isn't it? You get to be handsome _and_ sporty."

She mentally rejoiced when she saw he was slightly thrown off by what she said. Apparently talking back to him in a friendly manner comes as a surprise to him. Just how much of an asshole was the guy usually?

Oliver stared at her blankly and asked with an air of nonchalance, "You think I'm handsome and sporty?"

Mai twitched, taken aback, turning a dark shade of red and stammered, "W-well, you're definitely sporty I think, since your reflex was really fast when you grabbed me, and well... you _do_ play in a strong team. And everyone in my class says you're handsome, so that must be true." It angered her that the more flustered she became, the more composed he got. He was definitely smirking at her now.

"...Is that so?" He looked her over, up and down. "Then you have good taste." He turned around and walked away without any other word.

Mai was left there standing, eyes bugged out as she watched him disappear behind a corner, completely stunned at his smugness.

So what, he just decided he'd saunter up to her, corner her into having a conversation, practically beg to be complimented, and then act like it's no big deal as if him being handsome and sporty are just simple, hard truths?

She most definitely didn't want anything further to do with him if she could help it. Nope, she most definitely didn't need to get acquainted with such a narcissistic asshole in her life.


	4. Surprise Encounter

****Chapter 4****

Mai took a deep breath, desperately praying to pass the retake exam, even if only to escape having to spend extra time with the permanently grouchy Kana-sensei.

After spending the last two weeks studying hard, and now especially after that interaction with a certain narcissist during lunch time, her nerves felt shot and she just wanted to go get it over with, go home, and recuperate her energy. She looked forward to her weekend, of finally having a chance to do her chores, catching up on her shows, and spending some time with Keiko and Michiru, something they haven't done as much since starting high school. She grabbed her things and trudged out of the room along with her classmates.

Keiko hoisted her bag higher up on her shoulder as she turned to her friends and excitedly cried, "I heard there's this really cute cafe that opened up recently, nearby the park we used to go to!"

"The one that replaced the yogurt place?" Mai asked.

"Yeah, that one!"

Michiru was skeptical. "A cafe on that spot? But wasn't that place too small?"

"Yep. But they made some renovations and now there is an open-air patio up front. I heard it's this foreign fancy looking place now. We should go check it out!"

Both Mai and Michiru agreed to the idea.

The trio soon reached the bottom floor and parted near the walkway leading to the gym, making up their minds to meet up around lunch time for their outing the next day. The two wished her good luck before disappearing out of sight. Mai exited the building and briefly wondered if the tennis club would be right in the middle of practice right now.

" _ _Eh__?" she thought to herself. " _ _Why did I suddenly think about the tennis club?__ " She shook her head. " _ _I wonder if someone like me could__ __even play? Oh well, I'll think about that later..."__

She halted her tracks and let a group of boys jog past her. They were wearing the dark navy blue jersey that she knew now, belonged to the boys' tennis team. It looked like they were doing laps around the entire school ground, so the rest of the team must have either pulled ahead or were left behind. She did not recognize any of the boys, except the tall scrawny looking kid with cropped blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses. He was one of her classmates, Kashima, if her memory served her correctly, but she had never spoken a word to him before. Mai stored this information in her head and tentatively planned to speak with him the next time they see each other so she can ask a bit more about tennis.

"But right now I need to focus on the test. Then after that I can relax and enjoy myself... maybe finally watch that drama Keiko's been gushing about."

-00000-

His breathing was just slightly labored. Oliver noticed that once again, though it wasn't blatantly obvious, the ball conveniently landed at a spot a few steps away from him, always just within his reach. He narrowed his eyes and lobbed it back deep toward one corner of the baseline, forcing their opponent, Yasuhara, scrambling to his feet to get to it.

"Up, Gene! Move up to the net with me!" he ordered and the two of them ran up, but Oliver's knee injury put him a fraction of a second behind his brother, accidentally creating a small opening.

Yasuhara's eyes instantly zeroed in on the spot just off to the right of Oliver where a slight chink in their intimidating attack presented itself, but the well-placed shot had put him in a bad position. He was only able to reply to the attack using his much weaker backhand, and coupled with his slight hesitation, ended up feeding the ball cross-court straight to Gene, who eagerly eyed the ball like a cat waiting to pounce on its prey.

A nice clean hit promptly shot the ball back in a sick angle, too impossible for Yasuhara (or anybody, really) to save.

"And that's game, Yasu! Three-to-six, our win!" Gene gloated.

The poor boy had to pause for a bit to catch his breath. With a semi-forlorn sigh, Yasuhara ran up to his friends for the obligatory after-game handshake, before plopping down on the bench to grab a towel from his bag. He rubbed his head vigorously to dry off his sweaty hair.

"I just really can't take these 'two-v-one' matches you seem to love, Boss. I'm already at a disadvantage in a singles match. This is just cruelty."

Oliver rolled his eyes and set his racket down gently, grabbing a sports drink from his bag and after taking a gulp, replied in an accusatory way, "If you would just attack like you meant it, you'd have a better chance."

Yasuhara blinked. He only hesitated for a split second- had Oliver really noticed that?

"Wow. You're like... so godlike," he murmured with awe. A look of exasperation and mounting impatience was quickly forming in Oliver's demeanor that Yasuhara immediately apologized. "Sorry, but to be honest you did get me good there."

"It wasn't just that point. Why haven't you been relentlessly attacking my side? You were purposefully aiming for the ball to land within my reach. Although as annoying as it is to admit, your precision, at least, is astounding. If you aimed to hit the ball wider or shorter, I would have had a hard time catching up to it. Always attack the weaker opponent. You know that."

Yasuhara deadpanned, "But you're __hurt.__ "

"Your point?"

"My point is that going after you in that state would just be plain cruel, and cruelty is not in my chivalrous nature."

Cue more eye-rolling from Oliver.

"Okay take it seriously next time, Yasu," Gene suddenly piped up, much to Oliver and Yasuhara's surprise. He insisted with a cocky, confident grin, "Really, hit the ball to wherever it makes tactful sense for you without regard to Noll. If he can't get it, I'll definitely be there to return. I need to work on my stamina so I can become more reliable for my partners."

Yasuhara whistled. "Way to be cool, Eugene-san."

"Your sarcasm is duly noted, Yasu-chan, but mark my words: I __will__ run you to the ground."

"Say it again, this time with more feeling so I shiver in anticipation."

"Your sarcasm is duly noted, Yasu-chan, but mark my words: __I will run you to the ground.__ How was that?"

Yasuhara clenched his fist in victory and gave him the a-okay sign.

Oliver groaned in disgust and frowned at this sickening banter. It was a miracle that the park was still empty at this time despite already being eleven in the morning on a Saturday, otherwise Oliver was sure their asinine behavior would have attracted unwanted attention.

He took the tennis balls out of his pocket and handed them off to Gene, hoping to put a stop their idiocy before it could annoy him further. "I'm going to head out a bit to buy something. You both can rally while I'm gone."

"Can you buy me something sweet to eat? There's a nice cafe just across the street."

"Would you care to share? It's only fair."

"Shut up, Yasu. Anyway peanut butter and banana crepe or something should be good."

Gene knelt down and started digging around his bag for his wallet. Oliver's eye twitched, feeling irrationally annoyed at how unkempt his brother's bag was, and eyed him disdainfully as he started handing him some bills.

Yasuhara casually draped an arm around Gene and chirped, "I'd sweetly ask you to spot me, but if I remember correctly you still owe me five bucks. I think crepe sounds good, too."

Gene groaned and handed Oliver more bills.

Yasuhara then turned to Oliver and offered, "How about Gene and I play a real singles match? That way you can rest completely and we can both work on our game stamina. I'll make pretty boy run all over the place so he won't have the energy to gloat further." He smirked as Gene glared up at him lazily behind his long lashes.

"You keep referring to me as 'pretty boy' in front of Noll, but you know we have the same face, right? It just doesn't really have the same effect."

"Do you have a __problem__ being praised as 'pretty'? What other alias would you prefer, Eugene-san? Handsome? Hottie? Hunk?"

Gene placed a finger on his chin, pouting his lips as if deep in thought. With a playful laugh, he decided, "Let's settle with 'hunk'. I like that. Seems macho."

Oliver exhaled sharply in annoyance before turning on his heel, angrily muttering how he didn't care for any of their stupidities. He heard Gene whine about how much of a prude he was, while Yasuhara gave some witty quip, but he no longer paid them any heed as he slammed the gate behind him.

He neatly folded the cash in his hand and stuffed it in his own wallet, and then scanned the area. Across the street was the cafe Gene must have been speaking of. Truthfully Oliver had hoped to take a walk to the nearby convenience store to grab a can of cold tea, but figured if he was going to the cafe anyway, then he might as well just get his drink there. He absentmindedly massaged his aching forearm.

After looking both ways and ensuring there was no oncoming traffic, he crossed the street and headed for the small shop.

It was a small place, with only two sets of table inside; the rest of the seating area was outside in the patio. The menu was listed on a standing board right by the entrance, currently being studied intently by a girl. He saw that the menu was written entirely in English, with some of their more exotic dishes having French names. He waited for several minutes, giving her a polite amount of time to make a decision.

" _ _ **Mot-tcha... mat-tchi-ato**__ ** **? Motcha matchi?**** What the heck does this mean? Ah, could this drink be matcha flavor? I wanted to try coffee though, is there matcha flavored coffee now? Why does this have to be in English?"

Hearing her getting nowhere with her decisions, Oliver's patience was quickly running thin. He leaned over behind her and asked politely, "Excuse me Miss, are you in line?"

When she turned around she let out " _ _Gwa!"__ in a yelp of surprise and they both froze.

Oliver narrowed his eyes and echoed in his head, " _ _'Gwa'? Why did the girl keep making ridiculous guttural noises like an animal?"__

Then out loud he commented dryly, "Oh, it's you."

Mai couldn't believe it. Why did the boy keep showing up __everywhere__? It was her day off, for crying out loud! And why did he sound so condescending when he said, 'Oh, it's you'?

"W-what are you doing here?" she sputtered.

He sighed noisily and ignored her inane question, thinking that he didn't have much energy to spare in addressing something so simple.

He was about to change the topic when the girl suddenly blurted out, "Maybe you should ice it? Your elbow, I mean," gesturing to his right arm.

Oliver immediately let go of his arm and placed both his hands in either of his pockets. Earlier when she surprised him, he had inadvertently clutched his elbow harder than he intended, which made his eye twitch slightly from the sudden sharp pain. Had she seen that? If so, then she was pretty observant. Choosing to deflect the question, he instead responded by poking her with, "Are you really that bad in English?"

She glared at him in irritation, her past failure and recent English exam first and foremost in her mind, and she retorted sharply, "Excuse me, please just mind your own business. And why do you always seem to pop up everywhere now, anyway? Are you __stalking__ me?"

Oliver raised a brow, completely taken aback by this outburst. "Stalking you? Why in the world would you think I'd even be interested in you to consider that?"

His completely honest and blunt delivery just flustered Mai even more. Then to answer her question, he just simply pointed to the courts behind him with his thumb.

To Mai's surprise, she understood his wordless action to mean that he had been practicing in the nearby courts for some time and now that he's hungry, he's come to the nearby cafe to replenish his energy. She formed an 'o' with her mouth and nodded.

Then just to make sure he didn't misunderstand anything, she emphasized, "I'm not trying to stalk you either, just for your information. I got here before my friends did so I'm trying to order a drink while I wait." She was annoyed, though not surprised, that he didn't seem to even be listening to her now.

Before she could say anything else, he said slowly, enunciating each syllable properly, " ** **Marble mocha macchiato****."

When she gave him a dazed look, he sighed and explained curtly, "The words you butchered before. I would say I thought it was hilarious, but I don't have a warped sense of humor-" here Mai courageously interjected a quiet 'if at all', which caused him to glare at her but he continued on, "It's an espresso drink. Not matcha." Then he just simply walked away from her and headed toward the counter.

Mai rolled her eyes and heard him order tea and several crepe varieties, and she was struck by the thought of how he didn't really look like the sweet-type at all. She almost laughed at her pun as she watched him walk away without saying anything to her after receiving his order. Then she went up to the counter and ordered, the foreign words rolling off her tongue awkwardly, but at least she was sure she pronounced them properly.

-000-

Oliver waited for the point to finish before he reentered the courts. He walked over to their bench and set the boxes down, sipping his iced Earl Grey tea while watching Gene and Yasuhara walk up to him with weary expressions. After a gulp of his drink, he scoffed inwardly in distaste. He had asked for it to be unsweetened, knowing that these type of places usually pile on the syrup, but the tea by itself really wasn't high quality at all. It was- crudely put- total shit, and for four bucks, definitely criminal.

"Did you already finish the game?" he asked the two of them.

His brother answered quickly, "It's only changeover, but I'm really hungry now. Can we eat first?"

"Eugene-san, are you just trying to run away from our match? That's not very macho at all," Yasuhara teased, placing a hand on Gene's shoulder and studying him with a glint on his glasses.

The boy scoffed and slapped his friend's hand away. "Yasu, score's only one-to-two, you don't get to be smug about it. We still have a long way to go so don't act like you've already won, you ass. We've been playing nonstop since nine and I run a lot more than you, so I'm beat. Let me eat."

"Changeovers are only 90 seconds you know. Will you cheat and still eat?"

"Yasu!"

"Well don't force it, you can always forfeit."

" _ _Yasuhara__ _ _!__ "

Oliver blocked out the rest of their banter and instead found himself looking over to a spot across the street, where a certain auburn-haired girl was chatting animatedly with who he figured were the friends she spoke of.


	5. Fight!

**Chapter 5**

He studied their form, making mental notes to himself as his watchful eyes darted from player to player.

 _'Kiriya-kun's shots lack power so he needs to pivot more. Lin-kun's footwork has improved, but he needs to be faster. Kashima-kun swings too late, but the power and intent behind every shot was good. Takigawa-kun is incredibly powerful as always, but his hits hardly went to the direction he aimed at. Gene-kun's split step technique has gotten quite good, but he adds some unnecessary movements. Oliver-kun...'_

He sighed. ' _Perfect form, perfect control, as always, although the power behind his latest hit was lacking'_. It had been steadily declining since they started.

He kept his eye on the younger twin as he blew the whistle, signifying the end of the drill. While the rest dallied around and continued rallying the point (someone had shouted, "Play the point! Play the point!"), Oliver quickly made his way toward the bench to get a drink of water.

"Oliver-kun, were you practicing over the weekend as well?" he asked conversationally, acting as if he meant it to be an off-hand comment.

"Yes, with Yasuhara-san and my brother. I think their game stamina is getting better. They're both quite quick on their feet, but we should probably add more long distance running to our routine to help them cope with longer matches."

"Agreed. I've actually been considering adding an extra 5-mile run to our routine every Tuesdays and Thursdays. What do you think?"

"It's doable."

"Now Oliver-kun, why don't you rest up and sit out for now? Your shoulder and elbow seem to be giving you a bit of problem already."

 _In fact, you should probably stop playing for today, altogether'_ , Toujo finished the thought to himself.

The boy considered his words for a second before replying, "Then I'll ask Hara-san to tape me up, Coach. Excuse me for a bit." He bowed politely and jogged off the court.

Coach Toujo sighed. Not that he didn't appreciate hard workers, but the boy really was just too stubborn for his own good. Much of his urging for Oliver to take it easy have fallen on deaf ears, or have been brushed aside as politely as possible. Ultimately his rank as a coach, although it gave his recommendations a heftier weight than others', did not automatically inspire the students to follow his will. Especially the more headstrong ones, and Oliver Davis was one, incredibly iron-willed individual. And unless he threatened to put him on the bench, his recommendations would just be that- recommendations. He had considered temporarily pulling him out of the team for his own sake, but that, he realized, would only inspire the anger of the moody teen and even then, who's to say the boy would even stop practicing on his own? There were other outside tournaments he could participate in after all. The best he could do was to at least remove him from playing singles.

Boy, had _that_ gone over well.

Toujo sighed even deeper. No, if Oliver Davis was to stop playing to recuperate his body from injuries, he would have to agree to it wholeheartedly himself. The problem was how?

Eugene Davis walked up next to him, toweling up after the rest of the team had finished goofing around.

"Gene-kun," Coach Toujo said quietly, hoping the other twin wouldn't hear. "Any luck on getting our indefatigable leader to ease up on practice?"

The boy in front of him smiled sadly and shook his head. "Nope. Still working on it, but... please give him time. We've spoken about it." Gene turned his head away before continuing, "It made me understand that he's just finding it difficult to take it easy right now. I think he's aware of what playing with an injury can do to his body, but he can't sit out because the team needs him. If the team can show him we can handle things, then I'm sure he'll be more receptive to the suggestion. I've spoken to the other regulars about it and agreed that we'll all be working harder from here on out. I think putting him in doubles with me for now is good. I'll take care of him until we get all this sorted out."

Coach Toujo smiled and inwardly applauded the older twin for his keen perception. With a wide grin, he replied,"I know you will." Then once the rest of the team had a few minutes to rest and drink up, he announced, "Alright, we'll be working on serves and return today. Split up into four groups and take courts one and two." The boys started shuffling around to their stations.

"Ah, as for you Takigawa-kun, grab a basket and set up on court three. We'll be working on your smash. Remember: control."

"Yes, Coach!" the third year with dirty-blonde hair chirped as he hauled away a basket full of tennis balls and grabbed his water jug with him, heading out the gates and toward the courts on the other side of the screened walls.

After getting taped up Oliver hastily put his shirt back on and thanked Hara curtly, grabbed his tennis racket, and was about to head out with the rest of the team to practice his serves, but Coach Toujo shook his head and pointed toward court three.

"I need your help with Takigawa-kun. I'll be staying here to work with the others on their serves."

Oliver just nodded and followed obediently right after Takigawa's trail.

Behind him, Coach Toujo heard the amused comment of Kiriya, one of the second year players, as he whispered to the others, "Coach is so sly, making Oliver-san sit out from the drills by making him drill Takigawa-senpai..."

-000-

Mai was panicking.

She had been too preoccupied with reviewing for her make-up English exam that she completely forgot about the upcoming history test and was currently cursing herself out for it. If it hadn't been for Keiko innocently asking her on Saturday if she had been able to make any headway with most of their material, she would have been completely taken by surprise. She put her head down and fought to clear her mind.

No, she decided, dwelling on it wasn't going to do her any good. There was no point in beating herself up about it. All she could do now is to just face the fact that she messed up. And cram.

As she stared at the notebook before her, Michiru's reassuring words of, " _At least History isn't one of your worst subjects,"_ rang through her head.

"True," she mumbled quietly, before a frown creased her forehead. "But it's not one of my best subjects either. Come to think of it, do I even _have_ a best subject?"

The silence of the library was broken by a loud, despaired sigh that she was surprised to find to be coming out of her own lips, catching the attention of several other students. She held her hands up in front of her as an apology, then collected all her things and decided she might as well head home with her lack of progress, and exited through the double doors.

Coming from the library, Mai figured that the best way to leave the school grounds was to use the back exit, which brought her around the vicinity of the tennis courts. Since she was feeling frustrated with herself already and decided she didn't care for the rest of her plans for that day anymore, she decided to head over and take a peak.

As she got nearer the courts and heard the familiar sounds of the balls, she smiled excitedly, especially at seeing that the entire team was presently working on some exercises. Somehow she had begun to be interested in the sport and wanted to watch and understand how people play the game. Most of the boys were in the farther lower courts, separated by the screen gates, but the narcissist (he had his back towards her, but she knew his features by now) and a rather handsome older student were doing a different sort of exercise up in the courts closest to where she was at.

She watched them for a couple of minutes until a small, bright object caught her attention from the corner of her eyes. It was a tennis ball nestled in the roots of a nearby tree. She hopped along toward it and saw behind it there were three other tennis balls scattered around as well. Mai wondered if she could somehow find a lull during the boys' training so she can return it to them, or if she should just leave them there since they might be coming out to pick them up anyway. With a shrug, she bent over and picked them up, awkwardly playing with them in her hands as she walked back to her previous position, noting how the balls' bright neon felt had frayed along its surface.

She continued watching the two players. Mai noticed that the narcissist would hit the ball up really high but close to the net, and the handsome boy would track it as it floated in the air, his left hand pointing up and his right hand with the racket folded up behind him, loaded and ready to swing in a heartbeat, and after the ball bounced up to the correct height, would blast it back toward the other side of the court.

Mai hummed in amazement. The boy's tall height and powerful forearms made the ball whiz straight down and bounce back up in an incredibly high arc toward the back of the court, and she was suddenly very sure that the four stray balls came from his hits.

As Mai watched, she eventually realized that the blonde boy didn't have any particular target he was aiming at. However, some of the powerful hits went toward the center of the court, around where the narcissist stood with his basket of balls. Sometimes the skinnier boy would hit it back immediately after the ball struck the ground before the ball rebounded too high, or sometimes he would even just stick out his racket and hit the ball even before it hit the ground. Mai saw him struggle, returning what she presumed to be a very heavy ball hit with such power, but he managed to return most of those that came around his territory.

"Takigawa-san, try aiming for the corners of the court and avoid the middle where it can still be returned. A 'smash' is a finishing move, so you should aim to end the point with the hit," she heard him say in his usual no-nonsense tone.

"Right! I remember to do that in the beginning, but eventually I end up just focusing on the movement instead. Sorry, I'll try again."

The narcissist fed him another ball, but now he was too preoccupied with aiming that he lost all the power behind it.

"Your form is already good. You follow through well, so you can put that in the back of your mind. Your focus right now is control. Understandably, this may cause you to lose the power behind your hits, but control is much more important. A weaker but well-placed shot can still win points. We can reintroduce your power shots after."

Takigawa nodded and the two resumed their drills. Every time there was a tiny break in between, Mai saw the narcissist pause and give his right arm a slight shake. She narrowed her eyes.

She also noticed that the balls the narcissist was hitting over weren't as consistent as they had been prior. Suddenly, Takigawa let out a surprised grunt as the ball that was supposed to land in front of him flew past above his head and put him out of position. He shuffled backwards and still hit the shot, except it came up short and hit the net.

"That was my mistake. But good hustle."

Takigawa laughed somewhat tiredly and squatted down with a pout. "Nah, no worries. Hey, actually let's take a break here. We've been at this for a while."

"Fine." The narcissist dropped the ball he was holding back into the basket and began picking up the balls on the floor, Takigawa following suit after him.

Mai retreated behind the tree, suddenly feeling shy now that the two players were done playing and were simply conversing. She couldn't really hear what they were saying, but it still felt like she was only eavesdropping now. She leaned her head against the tree and gripped the balls tighter. She could just speak to them right now and hand them the balls, then she could go home. But they were still busy talking and she felt it rude to interrupt. She caught a wind of their conversation, but it sounded too muffled and far away for her to understand completely.

"Looks like Lin and Yasuhara are playing a match back in court two."

"It's a good match up. Lin's a strong hitter and will make Yasuhara-san run around, but Yasuhara-san is a smart player and will position the balls so that Lin won't be able to swing at his full potential."

"My bet's still on Lin, six-to-one. Yasuhara isn't used to singles yet. Oh yeah, how are you and Gene coming along with your game? You used to play a lot together, right?"

"We understand each other and do play well together, but our styles have widely diverged since we last played an actual doubles match. He gets aggravated with me for trying to control the ball too much."

Takigawa laughed. "I can imagine. It's hard to play doubles and share the ball when you're so used to the singles mentality."

"Precisely."

After clearing the floor, Takigawa smacked his lips together and whined, "Damn, I'm really thirsty. I'm going to head out and buy something from the vending machines first. Want something?"

"No thank you, I'm fine."

"Okay. I'll be back in a bit. Just sit tight for now, alright?" He hesitated and let his eyes linger on his friend's arm. As he jogged away he looked back one last time and for good measure yelled out, "Just... rest up until I get back!"

"Sure."

Mai heard the gate open and close, followed by the sound of retreating footsteps. She blinked and stuck her head back out. The narcissist was alone in the courts now, but instead of resting as Takigawa had recommended, he moved the basket toward the back of the court at the baseline, and started dribbling a tennis ball on the floor. It was the beginning of the service motion Mai had seen before.

He threw the ball up and leaned back, his form looking elegant and professional, Mai thought, but the ball he hit didn't go in. He tried again. And again. And again. But the balls were always either out, or hitting the net.

Before she could stop herself, she stepped out behind the tree and called out to him, "Hey, if your arm is hurting then you should really stop, you know!"

Her sudden outburst startled the boy and his serve went completely off course. He slightly bristled and turned to glare at her.

"The nurse's office is still open so you should go get that iced immediately. Did you even ice it down when I told you to last time?"

He turned away and began his service motion again. The shot was still no good.

Oliver sighed in aggravation as he heard her open the gates. He swiveled on his heel to face her. "You should not come into the courts while they're in use. And dress shoes aren't meant for tennis courts; you'll ruin the coating on the floor."

Mai rolled her eyes. "I'm not running around, am I? I just found these balls outside so I'm returning them to you. But that aside," she frowned and directed her gaze at his arm. "I can see your fingers are slightly shaking. You can't even hold on to that racket anymore, can you? Why are you still trying to act all cool and ignoring what your own body is trying to tell you? Take it easy. Are you stupid, or something?"

His grip on his racket loosened and his eyes glassed over. He was definitely tired now from being assaulted on all fronts about 'needing to take it easy'. Taking it easy was just not something he could do right now; it was impossible. Why couldn't these people understand? Did they really think he didn't know Coach Toujo asked him to go out here so that he wouldn't have to be doing the drills? And that Takigawa went along with it for his sake, even though he should have also been working on his serves and playing mock matches with the others? And now he was being told off by a complete stranger. It also didn't help that her last line definitely irked him.

The usually poised, collected boy clenched his fist and with narrowed eyes, retorted viciously, "And you think someone like _you_ can haphazardly throw around 'stupid' as an insult when you yourself are struggling with your English, and no doubt with the rest of your studies as well? Since you obviously are not part of any clubs, you must therefore stay late at school due to remedial classes, am I right? Why are you wasting time here trying to order me around when you've got some problems of your own? Or are you even more idiotic than you seem?"

The sudden attack caught her by surprise and she reeled back. "I-I... what?" Mai gritted her teeth. All her concerns and all her failures started swimming around in her head.

She had just gotten out of her remedial class last week, but now with her History test coming along, she was in danger of being stuck in another one again. And if she were to retake the exam and study two whole weeks for it, she would probably end up neglecting her other studies again and repeat the cycle over and over. This would mean she wouldn't have time to find club activities as her entire school year would just be spent trying to catch up with failed exams. Her insecurities gnawed at her chest.

Nothing had changed; she was going to end up spending her time just skating by, just as she had done in middle school. She had her first taste of freedom, but her incompetence held her back from enjoying life.

What _had_ she been thinking, deciding to hang around at the tennis courts and telling other people what they should be doing?

Before she could help it, tears started forming in her eyes. Mai also realized she was shaking. From anger. Although what he said had merit and completely hit the nail on the head, what right did that narcissist have to speak to her that way? She was only concerned for his sake! She glowered at him fiercely and had to fight every desire in her body to punch his beautiful, arrogant face.

Her voice had a slight tremor as she fought to say calmly, "Yes. I've been going to remedial classes, so what? I know my limits so I'm working on it. So I'm stupid. That doesn't exclude _you_ from being stupid. But do go on. Ruin your chances of ever healing again, for all I care." She forced a deep breath and shut her eyes tightly so that the tears that had formed previously, which were no longer applicable to her current feelings, slid freely down her cheeks. She wiped it and turned around with a huff.

She took a determined step forward but her arm suddenly jerked back with a painful pop. She grimaced and looking down, found her arm locked in his tight vice to prevent her from walking away; she couldn't help but think about how strong he was. Mai looked up at his deep blue eyes and was surprised to find them opened wide, seemingly just as startled by the action as much as she was. "W-what do you want?"

He blinked at her for several seconds, his mouth slightly open and unable to form some words. Mai thought for a moment that he was about to apologize as his eyes traced the lines her tears trailed along her face, but eventually his breathing calmed down and his eyes hardened back with its usual sharpness. He said in a deadpan, "The balls. Don't steal them."

Mai scoffed in disbelief and yanked her arm back, stomping her way toward the full basket. Unable to control herself, she kicked it over, sending the balls flying out all over the place, and then finished up her little scene by throwing down the four balls she held in her hands.

"What-" he began, but was cut off when she yelled back in a splutter.

"You know, Naru, you're such a _stupid_ , _arrogant-stupid-asshole-unfeeling bastard!"_ before storming out of the gate and slamming it loudly behind her.

" _She said stupid twice,"_ was the first thing that rung around in his head, much to his irritation. Why the hell did he even care to notice that?

Oliver looked at the mess before him and scratched the back of his neck. He wanted to go after her, to yank her back and yell at her and shake her until her tiny brain went to mush as it rattled around her head (heaven knows there wasn't much in there), but instead, he took deep, calming breaths and watched the girl with a menacing glare as she disappeared around a corner without even looking back.

"Whoa, damn! That girl was _pissed_!"

Oliver snapped his head around and to add to his annoyance, came face to face with Takigawa, who had just returned. And several steps behind him was a very excited Gene.

Oliver looked up to the sky and uncharacteristically prayed to the gods above to grant him patience. If possible, he hoped to borrow his patience allotment for the rest of the year to deal with whatever nonsense he had to deal with now.

" **Oo! Noll!** What did you do? Why was she so mad? Who was that?"

Oliver could see the undisguised mirth in his twin's eyes and he wanted to punch him so badly that instant, but, of course, he controlled himself and tempered his emotions. His voice was calm as he answered evenly, "No one important. She was just upset I called her out for being stupid."

Then when his anger abated, he realized she had called him by his nickname, but she said it weird. Probably because her English was utterly atrocious. But then he didn't remember ever telling her his name, let alone his nickname. And come to think of it, he didn't even know _her_ name.

Takigawa laughed. "Oh Davis, you and your way with girls. I swear I've never met anyone else like you who could inspire girls to have such... violent reactions after getting a whipping from your sharp tongue. But well, if you hate her that much and upset her like that, she probably won't ever be back to bother you again."

"Hey Noll, you okay? You actually seem really upset about it..."

"What? He does? He looks just like normal to me..." Takigawa asked his younger friend ludicrously.

"Noll?"

Oliver sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Will she really never come and talk to him again? That was good, right? Exactly what he wanted.

No.

Although it pained him to admit, he was probably the one in the wrong. He had snapped at her for simply saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and even ended up making her cry somehow. Had he unintentionally hit a nerve? Even though her immaturity had greatly pissed him off (it was just like dealing with a female Gene), he _did_ instigate it so perhaps he should try to talk to her to get it all sorted out...

No.

What was he thinking? He pushed all the thoughts away. He had to forget this whole ordeal so he could deal with his annoying teammates.

He stood up straighter and replied, "Yes, never mind that. After we put all the balls back, the team will do four laps around the courts."

-000-

The twenty minute walk back home felt like an hour to Oliver, with the previous events replaying in a repeat inside his head. And judging by the way Gene's lips would sporadically curve upward in a smirk, only to bite his lips and fight to keep a straight face, Oliver was sure the idiot was more than itching to bring up the girl, although thankfully, he was craftily avoiding the subject and instead talked about a lot of nonsense. Usually this would annoy Oliver, but for now, it was more agreeable to chat idly rather than face the alternative.

The twins danced like so, all the way until they reached home.

Luella was busy in the kitchen but upon the twins' arrival, she stepped out and welcomed them home. She wiped her hands in her apron and moved a stray hair from her face with the back of her hand and said to them, " **There's cake in the oven right now, boys, and dinner is almost ready. The Lins will be here around seven thirty, so go and get cleaned up.** "

Behind her, the twins could see Martin chopping the vegetables for the salad and called out his welcome.

Gene let out an enthusiastic, **"Hi Martin** **! And okay, will do, Luella!** while Oliver only nodded before taking the stairs to his room.

-0-

Oliver never got used to having to take long Japanese baths so despite the fact that Gene left the water for him, he simply drained it and turned on the shower, not caring about how wasteful it was.

He sighed in relaxation and yawned, craning his neck left and right to stretch the tense muscles underneath, the water pressure providing him a light massage. He looked forward to the chiropractic care he was to receive that night, for his shoulders and forearms were aching quite horribly.

After a few minutes, he stepped out and got into his black T-shirt and jogging pants, draping a towel around his neck.

When he entered his room, he saw Gene splayed on his bed, reading one of those naughty magazines he always managed to sneak around with Yasuhara. With a glare, he said in his stony voice, "That is disgusting. Please refrain from getting excited in _my_ bed. Read that drivel in your own room." He took the damp towel around his neck and threw it at his twin.

Unperturbed, Gene removed the towel from his head and placed it aside, his eyes still glued on the page. A playful smirk graced his lips and Oliver dreaded that he was about to hear something he would rather not know.

"This girl is really cute. This bikini leaves a little to your imagination. Look!" Gene flashed him a page of what Oliver could read as a 'Gravure' magazine.

There was really nothing he could do to prevent his eyes from _seeing_ , so when he saw the picture of the petite Asian girl with a very well-endowed bust clad in a pink, lacy and almost see-through bikini, all he could do was stare and blink.

Gene sat up, amused to have elicited such a confused and naive reaction from his younger brother. His laughter wanted to burst out, but wanting to preserve Noll's dazed reaction, he tried to stifle it and instead ended up snorting through his nose. Unfortunately this broke Oliver's trance.

Oliver furrowed his brows. "Gene!" he barked, "get the hell off my bed. _N_ _o_ _w._ "

Gene was about to retort something when the doorbell rang and Luella's voice called out from downstairs.

" **Boys! Our guests are here! Come down!** "

Gene sighed in defeat and rolled out of Oliver's bed, which seemed to satisfy his younger brother. Not knowing what to do with the magazine in his hand, he quickly shoved it in Oliver's bookshelf, among thick textbooks. Before Oliver could say anything, he supplied, "Don't worry, I'll come pick it up again later. I just need to hide it for now."

Oliver sighed and followed his twin out.

When they came downstairs, the two watched as Mr. and Mrs. Lin stepped in, exchanging warm greetings with Luella and handing her a bottle of wine. Behind them, the towering form of their friend, Lin Koujo, followed suit and bowed politely to their hosts.

Gene called out playfully, " **Good evening, Lin-san, Lin-san, Lin-san** ," bowing to their three guests in succession. Mr. and Mrs. Lin eyed him suspiciously before greeting him back stiffly.

Martin, who had just come out from the kitchen, shook his head and wanted to rebuke his son for being so obviously teasing, but he technically wasn't doing anything wrong so he just sighed. Turning to his long-time friend, he smiled widely and shook his hands. " **Feng! Nice to have you over.** " Mrs. Lin stepped up and also shook his hand. " **Meihui, so nice to see you both. Come in, come in.** "

" **Sorry, dinner is just about served. The potatoes just need to boil for a few more minutes. Make yourselves at home, you know the drill. Let's come in and talk at the table,** " Luella offered and gestured toward the dining area, and the rest of the adults followed suit.

Meanwhile, Lin had removed his shoes and followed the twins upstairs to Oliver's room. He casually sat down on the edge of Oliver's bed, bobbing up and down slightly when Gene plopped down heavily next to him. Oliver gave his twin another glare before sitting down at his desk chair and swiveling it to face them.

After a few seconds of silence, Gene spoke up. " **Hey Lin, your parents still hate Japanese people?** " He was lying down comfortably, an arm behind his head and his legs crossed in the air since Lin was taking up the bottom half of the bed.

Lin nodded curtly. " **They are still wary around them, yes.** "

" **After you guys have lived here for five years now?** "

" **It seems that way, yes.** "

In front of them, Oliver scoffed. " **How utterly ridiculous. Why move to Japan then, where they'd be subjected to facing the people they hate on a daily basis? Your parents are idiots.** "

Lin pulled his mouth taut and said, " **Even though what you say may be true, please refrain from insulting my parents in my face.** "

" **Would you rather I say it behind your back? It is the truth and even you acknowledge that their racism makes them difficult to be around.** "

" **You are also difficult to be around, even without racism, and that is the truth and you and I both acknowledge it. But I have never called you an idiot, nor have I done so behind your back.** "

" **But you think it. There really is no difference if you decide to verbalize it or not.** "

Gene frowned and snapped his head back and forth between Oliver and Lin, who were now eyeing each other. He was a troll himself, but he would never badmouth somebody's parents in front of them, even if he did think it to himself. He wasn't socially inept! But clearly his brother was.

He tried to defuse the situation. " **Come now, Noll. Lin, don't worry, he's just still upset about what happened earlier with some girl. But anyway, good thing you're over that hatred, huh?** "

" **Indeed. I no longer hate indiscriminately. Only people who deliberately antagonize me, Japanese or not,** " Lin answered, staring pointedly toward Oliver's direction, but the boy simply shrugged him off.

Gene laughed. " **Luella said this was also a business visit. Your mum's going to do some chiropractic work on Noll, right? I think his injuries are getting worse."**

Lin nodded. " **Obviously, since Noll seems intent on destroying himself. We can at least try to remedy it with some exercises and some muscle manipulation."**

 **"You said you were going into Physical Therapy, right? Are you able to fix up Oliver on your own now as a practice? You've been working with your mum for all these years so you're practically a therapist now too, right?** "

" **I know how to do it, but it's dangerous to perform any manipulation on a person without** **a license.** "

Finally joining in on the conversation, Oliver pointed out, " **Having a license does not preclude the infliction of an injury.** "

Lin smirked. " **I did not say the license was needed to protect the person I'm working on. It's to prevent** ** _me_** **from getting sued if an accident were to occur, especially if I were to break someone's back because they pissed me off.** "

A cold sweat broke on Gene's forehead and he looked at the man before him with a sheepish, wary look, but to his surprise, Noll, who was obviously the target of the idle threat, was staring back at Lin with a smirk of his own.

Gene could never understand the strange dynamic those two had.


	6. The Vending Machine Incident

**Chapter 6**

"Hey, do you see that really tall guy over there? In front of us."

Mai raised her brow and inwardly sighed. She hadn't even bid her a proper greeting yet!

 _'Really, Michiru!'_ she scolded her friend in her mind; it was just like her to start talking about boys first thing in the morning.

Already miffed, she grumbled when her friend started poking her on the side and thrust her hands rudely in front of her face, pointing ahead of her. Mai followed Michiru's fingers and landed her eyes on an imposing pair of boys and asked with disinterest, "Who are you talking about? Which one?"

"The blonde one, with the ponytail and the earring! You know who that is?"

Mai's eyes rested on the aforementioned boy and bit her lip. Yep, she knew him- well, by name at least. Several days ago she watched him practicing with a certain narcissistic-person-she'd-rather-not-remember, but thinking that she'd rather not have to explain how she knew of him, pretended complete ignorance.

"Nope. Who's that?" Before her friend could respond, Keiko's voice came behind them.

"Good morning, Mai, Michiru!"

 _'_ _At least Keiko's got her head on straight,'_ Mai thought to herself as she returned her friend's cheerful greeting. "Good morning, Keiko! You're kind of late! Usually you're here before me."

Keiko laughed sheepishly. "Ah, sorry about that. My cat-" but she was cut off when Michiru grabbed her arm and pointed to the same pair of boys she had been eyeing previously.

"-Keiko, look! Over there!"

"Oh, that's-!"

"-Takigawa Houshou-san, a third year and a regular on the boys' tennis team," Michiru finished.

Keiko nodded and Mai hummed at the not-so-new information.

 _"_ Noriko _-buchou_ * introduced him to us yesterday after our match. He came with Matsuzaki-senpai (she's the captain of the girls tennis team by the way)," Michiru explained further before suddenly flailing her arms wildly about and yelling, "Takigawa-senpai, over here!"

Several people turned their heads and Mai felt embarrassed, but thankfully among those who heard the obnoxious call was the boy himself. When they caught his gaze, Keiko also waved briefly and both her friends ran up to him. Mai had no choice but to follow along.

"Oh, Michiru-chan and Keiko-chan, right?"

"You remembered!" Michiru chirped.

Mai couldn't help but hold back a smile. It was so obvious that Michiru had a crush on Takigawa that he'd be blind not to be aware of it.

To her right, Keiko asked more calmly, "I heard Matsuzaki-senpai mention that the boys tennis team has a match this afternoon. Is it a home game or an away game?"

"Home. Will the volleyball team come and watch the game? You guys probably have practice today though, right?"

"We do, but we end early today. We have a game tomorrow so we usually don't do such long drills the day before a match, and since you came to support us yesterday, we should return the favor, right? Which school are you guys going up against? Are they strong?"

Takigawa smiled charmingly and made a motion of his head, inviting them to keep walking alongside him. "Furudachi Gakuen. Although this is only a practice match and they're not particularly strong, but we can't afford to get careless. But rather than winning, our goal today is to try out and experiment with our new lineup."

Michiru piped up. "Will you playing first singles, Takigawa-senpai?"

The boy laughed and shook his head, instead pointing to the boy next to him. "Nah, that's the responsibility of this guy right here. This is Lin."

The boy named Lin, who was towering at 190cm tall in Mai's approximation, was just a bit taller than Takigawa. He stopped in his tracks and bowed to them politely to introduce himself. "I am Lin Koujo. A pleasure to meet you all," he said in his stoic voice.

The three of them were startled at his extreme politeness and also halted in their tracks, bowing back with as much deference and replying with their own introductions. Somehow, Mai ended up having to introduce herself as well, feeling ridiculous at being pulled into a conversation she didn't belong in. The group resumed their walk.

It was Takigawa who broke the ensuing silence as he reflected, "I don't think I met you yesterday, Mai-chan. May I call you that?"

Mai felt her cheeks flush at being called so familiarly by a stranger, but she ended up nodding her head. "That's fine with me. And we didn't meet yesterday because I'm not a member of the girls volleyball team."

"I see. But I feel like I've seen you before. I just don't quite remember where?"*

Mai tilted her head in confusion. She had been hidden behind the tree the whole time and never stepped out to meet him during his practice. She answered truthfully, "I don't think we've ever met, Takigawa-san."

"' _-san'_?" he whined. "That's so formal! What about _-senpai?_ It's cute. _O_ r _-kun_. That's fine, too."

Mai flushed. "Oh but that's-!"

She _marveled at his incredibly charismatic aura and wondered if he was the kind who disliked being kept away at shoulder's length by formality._

"Takigawa. Stop creeping out your juniors," came Lin's curt reprimand and immediately Takigawa shrugged and gave a sheepish laugh.

"Alright, the cute ladies can call me however they want."

He winked playfully and Mai felt Michiru swoon beside her. As for herself, Mai couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling out. She couldn't explain why she felt a strong sense of liking towards the older boy. Even though he was being playful and flirtatious, he did it in a way that made a girl feel comfortable, rather than flustered. She knew in her heart he was someone safe, reliable, and trustworthy.

Lin sighed and with just the tiniest hint of disdain, reprimanded his teammate. "It seems a monk's life truly isn't suited for you."

The three girls tilted their head.

"Takigawa-senpai as a monk?"

"My parents own a nearby Buddhist temple so I trained with the monks for a while. My parents were hoping I'd at least take over, continue on the family business since it's already established, maybe if possible, become a respectable monk."

"Takigawa-senpai as a monk!" Michiru repeated in disbelief.

Takigawa laughed. "Right? Even though that would be the smartest thing for me to do, I just don't see myself leading that kind of life. I don't know what I want exactly, even though I'm a third year already and all... but I do know I don't want _that."_

" _Takigawa-san is still figuring himself out,_ " Mai thought to herself, feeling more at ease now that she knew she wasn't alone in feeling lost.

"There's plenty of possibilities for me to explore; I'll figure it out soon. And besides, it'd be unfair to do that kind of thing so halfheartedly, right?"

Mai smiled at him. "I think it's awesome that you're trying to understand yourself better and are working achieve something with your own power. Thank you. Hearing you say those words helps me think about my own troubles."

"Aww, Mai-chan, I know you've just met me, but know that this old man will be there for you if you need anything. Same goes for you two young ladies as well."

The three of them gave him a warm smile and nodded with light laughter.

It was Mai who said, "Takigawa-san, you actually sound like an old monk, there."

Takigawa laughed. "Hah! So we're sticking with 'Takigawa-san' after all, huh?"

Mai smirked playfully. "Fine, may we ironically call you 'Bou-san' then?"

Michiru and Keiko laughed along and cried, "Yeah! Bou-san!"

Lin covered his mouth to hide a small smile, while Takigawa laughed boisterously. "I did say you could call me whatever you wanted..."

Behind them, the chiming of the first warning bell sounded. Other students around them started running, cursing out that they were going to be late. Mai, Michiru, and Keiko, being young, inexperienced first years too concerned about their attendance, quickly turned on their heels and ran with the others, waving their frantic goodbyes to their new friends. Lin and Takigawa, having a bit more poise and caring more about how ridiculous they would look to others if they were to run in their school uniforms, merely shrugged and just continued walking in the same pace like usual.

-000-

Mai felt listless and looked at the clock. In just a few more hours, she would have to take her History test. She sincerely hoped that her cramming yesterday would prove helpful somehow. It's not like she was wishing to pass with flying colors- she was a fair girl after all. All she wanted was to at least _not fail._

" _But thank goodness I ended up passing my English test though!"_ She had scored 80%, practically a perfect score by her standards.

Feeling a bit more optimistic than before, she let go of the breath she didn't realize she was holding.

The next class ended up being a free period. Their math teacher had an emergency and called out suddenly, which left no time for the school to find a suitable substitute teacher. The heavens seemed to have conspired to provide her the best result as possible! More study time for her! But as soon as she pulled out her history textbook, she got distracted by the grating sound of the chair being pulled away from the empty desk beside her. She turned her head toward the sound.

"Ah, sorry about that. Did that hurt your ears?"

Mai turned to the boy beside her and met with his bored-looking eyes. His cropped blonde hair curled ever so slightly at the tips and perfectly framed his boyish features.

She shook her head. "No, I'm alright... Kashima Kei-san, right?" The boy simply nodded at her question and inclined his head just the tiniest bit. Mai fumbled around and bowed her head. "Ah, I'm Taniyama Mai!"

"I see. Then Taniyama-san, I hope you don't mind if I take a seat here? Shogo and the others are playing with their handhelds and it's too noisy for me to stay at my seat," he pointed back to his usual spot where a group of several boys were huddled around.

"Not at all. Please, go ahead."

When the boy settled in, he glanced back at her and gave her another polite bow of the head and readjusted his black, thick-rimmed glasses before burying himself in his book. Mai briefly wondered if it would be unwelcome if she were to strike up a conversation with him now. He didn't particularly look loquacious, nor inclined to much discussion, but he didn't look like a complete asshole who would just ignore her, either.

She decided she'd test the waters.

"Kashima-san?"

The boy gave her a sidelong glance and an expectant look.

So far so good!

"U-uhm... you're in the tennis team, right? I saw you running laps around the campus the other day."

"Yes, I am. What of it?"

"Ah nothing, really. I was just curious about the team since my friends said you guys had a match today. Will you be playing?"

He shook his head. "No, the regulars have already been chosen. Mostly returnees from last year."

Mai looked at him questioningly, begging him to elaborate.

Kashima blinked and resumed, "First years tend to not get in as a regular right off the bat since naturally those who have been training longer would be stronger. Even as a second year, the chances of becoming a regular is difficult since it depends on how many spots open up when the seniors leave. This year we only have two third year students who would graduate, so many of us would have to compete with each other for only those two open spots."

Mai noticed that he said this with just a tiny bit of resentment, but mostly his eyes flared with determination as if he took it as a special challenge.

"That's tough indeed," she reflected, and suddenly she felt very jealous again that other people can have the luxury of having friendly rivalries with their teammates. Once the fleeting emotion passed, she resumed, "How many regulars can there be on the team?"

"Seven. Three singles players, and two pairs of doubles players. It's not like the line-up is locked in for the entire season though. The coach can choose from the entire team who he'd want to play in the upcoming match, but usually the same seven people get chosen to play in our matches."

"Which do you play? Singles? Doubles? Though I don't really get exactly what those terms mean..." she laughed sheepishly.

Kashima only shrugged. "I usually get put into doubles during practice. It's pretty self explanatory, I would think."

Mai scooted her chair in closer to him when he took out his notebook and started drawing a diagram of a tennis court.

He explained, "'Singles' means you play by yourself, using the inner court only. 'Doubles' means you get to have a partner and the two of you need to defend your entire side of the court, even the alleys." He watched her eager face and continued his mini-lecture. "In terms of game play, doubles is much more fast paced and a lot of net battles occur. Points can be over in a couple of seconds. Singles games are much more taxing and can be a slower paced since it's best to defend your side of the court from the baseline. So basically quick reflexes is to doubles, while stamina is to singles."

"I see!" Mai stored the information away in her head. "Ah, that's right. This morning I met Takigawa-san and Lin-san."

Kashima nodded. "Lin-senpai and Takigawa-senpai are the only two seniors in our team and they play for the first and second singles position, respectively. They are our best players."

Mai had the urge to ask him about the narcissist and ask how he fit into the team, but since she didn't know what to call him or describe him (it was rude to refer to him as 'that narcissist', and she certainly wouldn't refer to him as 'that beautiful guy'), she decided not to bring it up. "They're very tall, aren't they? I think everyone I've seen so far has been pretty tall. Is height such a necessity in tennis?"

"It helps, but it isn't necessary as it is in volleyball or basketball. Good technique, fast feet, stamina, quick reflexes, and intense concentration are really what you need. And those you can learn with practice."

Mai was elated. Perhaps tennis could be it! Maybe she could... But she shook her head. One thing to tackle at a time. First, pass the history test, then worry about clubs. All in due time.

-000-

When the bell rang for lunch, Mai stood up from her seat and made her way to the vending machines, fingering her loose change in her pocket. It wasn't possible for her to go to the vending machine outside the school, which had her favorite green tea drink, but if she remembered correctly there should be a vending machine nearby that sold black tea. Close enough.

She hurried her steps. Although she already had a few minutes of extra review thanks to her free period (she had exhausted Kashima's patience in entertaining her ignorance of the sport fairly quickly), Mai figured she could still squeeze in a few more last minute review before lunch ended. She almost broke into a run, but remembering a certain incident in her mind gave her pause and she settled with taking longer strides.

Upon reaching the vending machines, she blanched. _He_ was there, carefully and wordlessly pondering his options before him. She tried to turn back, but knowing she didn't have much time to wait in the shadows for him to make his decision and leave, she stepped up and pretended to not have noticed him.

Oliver heard footsteps and cast a sidelong glance at the person stepping up to the vending machine beside him. She gave no verbal indication of recognizing him, but he knew, based on her definite insistence to not turn her head and the unnaturally focused gaze she wore, that he was being ignored on purpose. He inwardly shrugged and decided to play along. He had more important matters to attend to after all, such as choosing which drink would be more beneficial to him at the moment. The match was in a few hours and he wasn't sure whether he should opt for more calories for more energy later on, or opt for the caffeine to energize his body to get him through his next tedious class.

There really was no point in talking to the girl, he thought to himself.

After making up for his previous blunder (that had been difficult to admit, if he was being honest), he felt at ease, knowing that he now owed her nothing.

It happened the afternoon of the day before, when he, along with his brother and Yasuhara, had gone to the library to do some studying. He was walking a few steps ahead of the annoying duo when he turned a corner and immediately recognized the short auburn hair, which was blindingly illuminated by the sunlight trickling in through the windows.

She was hunched over, furiously scribbling in her notebook and fully absorbed in her studies. Oliver assumed she was studying for an upcoming test and with the way she reacted the other day, he figured it was probably very important to her to stay focused. In one of those rare bouts of magnanimity he thought himself seldom capable of, he decided he was going to simultaneously protect her precious moment and appease his conscience, especially since such a perfect situation presented itself wherein he could achieve both goals with just minimum effort for his part. Knowing that Yasuhara would immediately strike up a conversation with her and sidetrack her completely were he to now suddenly meet the girl again (especially since there was a Gene to entertain), he suavely turned around and steered his two companions away. He motioned them toward another table and pretended to be interested in their student council matters.

There was absolutely nothing else between them now. All he had to do was pick his drink and walk away without acknowledging her and whatever strange relationship they had somehow begun would soon dissipate into nothingness as quickly as it had started. That was what he wished.

But when the sound of a coin dropping on the floor hit Oliver's ears, followed by a short yelp and the frantic movement of a leg to try and stop said coin from rolling caught Oliver's eye, he couldn't help but turn his head toward her and watch the scene unfold.

Her foot, instead of doing what she meant it to do, that is, instead of halting the coin in its track, somehow ended up _ensuring_ that it got kicked further underneath the vending machine. She froze, and he almost struggled to keep his face straight.

"N-no... no way! That was my last coin!" Mai lamented. She threw herself down and tried sticking her hand underneath the machine, but sadly her arm was not long enough. When she took her arm out, it was dirty with cobwebs and she grunted in disgust as she tried to dust it off. She stood up and eyed the machine in front of her, the flashing red "10" on the screen taunting her mercilessly. She huffed.

It was really embarrassing and pissed her off to no end, but she decided it was best to swallow her pride.

She turned to the boy next to her and pretended to be surprised. With a smile and airy voice, she cried, "Oh, it's you?"

Oliver narrowed his eyes and met her gaze wordlessly.

"I... seem to have kicked my coin under the machine and I can't reach it. Since your arms are a lot longer than mine, do you think you can help me get it out?"

He said nothing and instead pressed the button on his vending machine. The rattling of the bottle as it descended down the chute rang loud in their ears. He bent over and reached for the flap, his hand momentarily disappearing behind it before reappearing with the bottle of milk in tow.

"You know what, you're right. It's probably not good to try and get it out since it's so dirty under there. But I already paid and I just need ten more yen. Can I borrow some change from you and I will pay you back? I promise!"

Oliver raised his brow and opened his bottle of milk. Without breaking eye contact, he took a sip of his drink and watched her fidget, enjoying the awkward silence between them. Finally, he said coolly, "You are rather shameless, aren't you?"

"Sh-shameless?!" she cried in mortification.

"Yes, that is what you call a person who would go on ignoring someone they have no use for, but then switch to pretend familiarity when necessity presents itself."

"Well you were very mean to me the other day and called me stupid!"

"You called me stupid first."

"And then you said all those things that hit a nerve! You made me cry, you know?"

Oliver inwardly grimaced but betrayed no emotion. "You seem to forget you retaliated by kicking the basket. I had to pick all those up." He paused. Then added, "Not to mention you finished your scene with a string of insults."

"Because you pissed me off! And I didn't want to talk to you! And I-"

Oliver smiled coldly. "And then now we are suddenly speaking because you needed help. Shameless."

Mai reddened further. He was correct, after all, and she now truly felt ashamed of her own actions. In order to rectify her mistake, she bowed, bent down to the waist in complete humility. "Y-you're right, of course. I'm am very sorry about that and humbly beg your apology."

Oliver was taken aback and momentarily frowned, but when she brought her head back up, he immediately put the placid mask back on. With the same listless tone, he asked, "You're really asking a stranger for money?"

"I-I'm Mai! Taniyama Mai! We have met several times already and I haven't introduced myself." Mai looked into his eyes, expecting him to grant her the same honor of introducing himself, but when he made no sign of even acknowledging her, she scowled and got pissed off again. With an aggravated sigh, she cried, "Okay, we're not _really_ complete strangers though, are we, because clearly we get on each other's nerves too much. Can't you _please_ just help me out this one time and have a truce? I don't mind if you call me shameless, whatever suits you, but it's not like I'm asking for a freebie. I said I would pay you back." Then an idea hit her. She balled her fist and clicked her tongue. "Ok, how about I pay you back twice the amount you lend me, huh? It's just a waste to come back with nothing, especially after I'd paid most of it already!"

But Oliver was completely unmoved. He took another sip of his milk, licked his lips delicately and gave her a teasing smirk, before turning on his heels and leaving her speechless after him, once again.


	7. The Davis Twins

**Chapter 7**

Oliver couldn't keep his attention on the lecture. His gaze continually kept being redirected toward the sky outside and his mind was meditatively blank -or so he'd like to think. But in reality, it was more that his mind was racing so fast that he simply was unable to distinguish one thought from another. Zoning out wasn't a problem to him; he was a genius after all, and from whatever little snippet of information that he managed to hear in those short moments of lucidity, he gathered it was material he already knew. It's just that he'd never blatantly acted so disinterested before because it seemed so inelegant. Zoning out was something his idiot brother would do. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

 _Perhaps it would have been more prudent to have gotten the tea instead of the milk_ , he thought.

Oliver shifted his position and tried to listen to the drone of the teacher once again.

"Another type of intermolecular interactions can arise when a polar molecule's electron cloud shifts and forms temporary positive and negative charges on opposite ends, creating a dipole -"

But before he knew it, his mind was already reeling. This time, he was able to focus on a string of thoughts all relating to their upcoming match. " _I need to do a truncated form of my service motion to lessen the burden on my shoulder. Since Gene's stamina is also of concern, it would be best to end our points quickly. Yasuhara-san's play style requires him to gather enough information on his opponent, so making use of heavy top spins and high arcs would be best in order to buy him time. Takigawa-san is aggressive and would most likely intimidate the opponent easily, so his job is simply to make as much of his hits in as possible..._

As he passed the time in this manner, he failed to notice that the teacher had already stopped his lecture and had now grouped people up to work on the worksheet he'd provided at the beginning of the class. Oliver tensed up and broke his thoughts when someone tapped his shoulder. He turned around and met the eyes of some girl he did not know the name of. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure if he'd ever seen her before.

"Davis-san? We were partnered up. Should we bring our chairs closer together?" she asked shyly.

"If it would help," he answered in a monotone.

She nodded and scooted her seat closer. The girl smiled at him and proceeded to ask questions regarding the worksheet. Her manner seemed stiff, as if she was deliberately trying to let him know that she was focused on the work, and Oliver thought it was a nice change of pace from the irritating antics their other female classmates usually did around him. Though, he supposes, most of them probably knew by now how cold and insensitive he was when it came to such things, and with Hara-san being around...

He started on the assignment.

The next twenty minutes passed by pleasantly in this manner. She stayed focused on the task at hand, asking intelligent questions he was not averse to answering. Truthfully, he was open to give a lending hand to people if they deserved it.

"Hina-chan, is my brother behaving?"

Oliver spared a glance at the girl across from him. As expected, the girl's demeanor suddenly changed and her focus on their work dissipated. He gave his brother a lazy look and resisted rolling his eyes when he saw that he was smiling brilliantly toward the girl. To his knowledge (and Gene's insistence), no girl had ever been able to resist it, so it wasn't at all surprising that the once behaved and collected girl lost her cool. Shame, she was doing so well.

"Gene-kun! Yes, he's been helping me. What brings you over?"

"Oh, I just have a few questions about the sheet. I'm too dumb to understand all this science-y stuff."

The girl tapped him playfully in the arm and exclaimed, "Oh nonsense! But you're so good in history and language and fine arts!"

"I just like those subjects, that's all. Science is not my forte."

"Heehee! Not mine, either."

"Lies," Gene grinned. "You're already way ahead of me on this worksheet. Seems like you've already got the handle on it."

She blushed deeply and giggled. "No, not at all. Your brother's been explaining it well."

Oliver decided to tune out their flirting and went back to working on his sheet, progressing much more quickly now that he didn't have her slowing him down.

Not that he minded, but he noted the way he was now being casually kept at a distance, being referred to merely as 'Gene's brother' when before she had been fine saying his name. With Gene's arrival, he'd been pushed out of the loop. It was a typical reaction, really. Whenever his better twin arrived, he, the stand-in twin, would always be quickly forgotten and therefore freed from having to conform to the tiresome social mores. It was quite impressive how Gene had managed to continually have this effect on people.

"Would it be okay with you if I borrowed Oliver for a minute?"

"Oh, of course! Go ahead!" she chirped. Oliver had never liked the way that segue was phrased; as if the pumpkin had any say whether or not Gene could interact with him.

"What is it?" he asked listlessly.

"Just a few questions about problem 8," Gene answered. He knelt down beside his brother and placed his chin on the table. "Show me how you solved it."

"Yasuhara-san is your partner. Why don't you ask him?"

The two turned to look at the boy behind them and met his knowing grin. Gene turned to Noll and answered, "He didn't want to share. And because we were also both wondering what got you so affected earlier. Right after lunch, you seemed a bit agitated."

Oliver frowned. He'd been going over the childish spat he had unintentionally been dragged into with the Taniyama girl and was trying to understand how she had managed to provoke him. Had he really been that affected by it?

He chose not to answer his twin and instead changed the direction of their conversation and began explaining the solution to the worksheet problem.

-000-

"What?" Michiru exclaimed, halting in her tracks and grabbing Mai by the shoulders. The trio had been walking side by side, heading towards the tennis courts in order to watch the upcoming match that was scheduled to start in a half hour.

Michiri continued to shake her, "So you're saying that you literally bumped into some guy when running up the stairs (-by the way, _why on Earth_ would you even do that? It's dangerous!). Then ran into him again the next day outside your classroom. Then you met this same guy at the cafe last Saturday and he teased you. Then met up with him again and he ended up making you depressed about school. Then met up with him _again_ during lunch today and pissed you off because he refused to lend you some spare change?"

"Yes. Please stop shaking me, Michiru!"

But her friend didn't stop. "You've been having _extensive_ interactions with some guy from school for the past week and you haven't said a word to us?!"

"Yes. But I am now!" Thankfully, Keiko pried Michiru's hands off her, but Keiko looked just as surprised.

Keiko mused, "It sounds like something out of a romantic comedy! Well so who is this guy?"

"I don't know."

Michiru pressed, "Is he in our year, or upper-classman?"

"I... don't know."

Her two friends sighed in aggravation and asked in unison, "Well what _do_ you know?"

Mai sighed. "Err, just that he's part of the tennis team and that he's an asshole, rude, and incredibly mean, and annoying." Then, sullenly, she also confessed, "He's also kind of handsome, too, I guess. Looks kind of exotic. And he knows it so he's quite narcissistic about it. In fact, I've dubbed him Naru because of it."

Keiko placed a hand on her chin and tried to think of ways to be helpful, whereas in contrast, the boisterous Michiru simply crossed her arms and grinned impishly at Mai's confession. "'Exotic? So you like the mysterious, handsome, bad boy type, huh!"

Mai rolled her eyes and cried exasperatedly, "I do not _like_ him, Michiru! Were you even listening? How could I like someone so mean and off-putting like that! I just conceded that he has a handsome face."

They had arrived at their destination, but the boys team was huddled around their coach in the farther lower courts, possibly going over their tactics for the matches. The opposing team were doing the same thing on the other side of the fence. The three watched silently for a few minutes as the SPR team finished up began to disperse. Then, finally noticing the presence of the water fountain ahead of her, Mai sauntered up to it, gathering her hair up and bunching it up to the side of her face and leaned down to take a much needed drink. She had been so thirsty since lunch time. She had the narcissist to thank for that.

"I only personally know of Bou-san and Lin-san, but I've heard from others that they have several foreigners on the team," Keiko offered helpfully, resuming their previous conversation. "Chika-chan has a crush on one of them. Brown-san. Apparently he is the handsome blonde guy from Australia and he's an upperclassman? I think it's that guy over there. Is it him?"

Mai wiped her mouth and shook her head. "No, that guy looks like a _decent_ human being. And Naru's exotic looks comes from his long lashes and really blue eyes, but he doesn't look like a foreigner..."

" _Hafu_ **[1]**?" the three of them blurted in unison.

Before she could say anything else, she suddenly stiffened. In front of her, slowly approaching, was the very man himself. Mai clenched her fists and tried to still the bubbling annoyance rising up from her chest. She tried to warn her friends with a hiss, but they didn't hear her as he chose that moment to speak up.

"Excuse me, may I squeeze in to use the fountain behind you ladies?" He smiled at them beautifully.

Both Keiko and Michiru melted under his gaze (and truthfully Mai would have, too, if she didn't know his true nature). She frowned and spat, "Why are you smiling like that? It's creepy!" Somewhere in the back of her mind though, she had to admit she was lying about it being creepy. The smile was actually very handsome.

The boy looked taken aback. "Pardon?"

She harrumphed. "Pretending to be a nice guy when others are present, are you?"

He laughed softly, albeit uncertainly. "Sorry, I really have no idea what you mean by that? Have we met?"

That was it! She stomped her foot angrily. "You are absolutely irritating! Earlier you were adamant that we're strangers (even though we're technically not, even though I have no idea what your name is), and now you're pretending you don't even remember me at all? You're really a world class jerk!" she cried indignantly.

The boy looked genuinely confused, yet despite the girl's growing irritation and impudence, he stayed patient. "I'm really sorry. It seems I've done something...?"

Keiko and Michiru blinked at their friend's rudeness. Then, looking over the boy again, they realized that one: he was handsome, two: he had long lashes, three: he had bright blue eyes, and four: looked Japanese. This must be _the guy_ she's been meeting up with. But one thing was off - he didn't seem to be rude at all. They prudently decided that the best course of action for them was to step away and leave the two to deal with their issues.

"I see Bou-san over there! Let's go, Keiko!"

"Catch you later, Mai!"

And the two sped off.

Mai crossed her arms, half wanting to walk away from him forever, half wanting to vent her pent up frustrations. Now that her friends left, she was also curious to see if he'd finally drop his disgusting princely facade. "They're gone now so you can go back to being your normal asshole self," she spat.

"I don't think I've ever done anything to you to be considered an asshole," he answered mildly. This whole scenario was really beginning to confuse him, but it was also quite amusing. He had never come across someone with such spunk. All the girls he'd interacted with so far had been either mild mannered, or highly enamored with his charms. Could he really have done wrong on the girl? "What have I done to receive such ire from you?"

"As if you don't know!" When he raised a brow, she sighed in exasperation. "I have never met anyone who managed to make me so angry as you do. And I've only met you last week!" She walked up to him and glared. "Do you know how badly I needed that drink? I had a test to take and needed to calm myself down with a nice, tasty drink, but no. I had to meet you during lunch! Would it have _killed_ you to be nice that one time? If I fail that test, it's all on you."

Finally, it clicked. But before Gene could reply, a sharp voice cut through to halt their conversation.

"I don't recommend you spending much time together, given that both of you might just make each other more idiotic than you already are." Gene turned and saw his brother inside the courts, speaking to them through the net fence and clutching an unopened can of tennis balls in his hand. Oliver eyed the two of them with disdain before shrugging his shoulders. "Gene, hurry up. We need to warm up." And with that, he walked away.

Mai's eyes widened. She looked back and forth between the guy who just left and the boy standing in front of her, both having identical faces, and gaped. There was no doubt that the rude newcomer was the narcissist she knew. So who was the person she'd been yelling at for the past few minutes? Her face heated up in shame.

"Jeez, that brat. Always insulting people," Gene muttered. He shook his head and addressed the girl in front of him. "I think you must have confused me for my brother. No worries, it's easy to confuse us. Identical twins and all."

"I- I'm so sorry!" she gasped out and bent her head very low. "I had no idea! I've been yelling at you so rudely and-"

Gene laughed and stopped her. "No, no, it's quite alright."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"

"Really, it's alright. Hey wait..." Gene paused, recalling a memory. "You... were you the one who came by the tennis courts the other day and kicked the bucket of balls?"

Mai didn't know she could turn even redder. The blood rushing to her head was already making her quite dizzy. "I... didn't know people saw that..."

"It _was_ you! Hah! That is funny. What has my idiot brother been doing to make you so mad?"

"W-well, he's just said some really rude things..."

"Ah, yes, he's got quite the sharp tongue." Choosing to change gears, he held out his hand. "Sorry, I'm Eugene Davis. Nice to meet you."

" _ **Y-yoo-jin D-devis-u**_ -san" she struggled to pronounce.

Instead of correcting her accent, he simply nodded and elaborated, "Yep. British."

" _So they are hafu!"_ she thought to herself. Recovering her stupor, she responded by shaking his hand and giving a short, polite bow, "I'm Taniyama Mai. Nice to meet you. Sorry again for... you know, yelling at you. I must have seemed like a total lunatic to you."

He laughed and admitted, "Honestly it was quite shocking. But I was more seriously considering I'd done something mean to you without meaning to." Then noticing Mai's stunned expression, he asked with concern, "What's the matter?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. It's just that... it's weird to see you laugh. I mean, it's weird to associate your face with laughter, since Naru is usually so morose."

Gene raised his brow. "He actually let you call him that?"

Mai covered her mouth in mortification, but after processing his comment, she grinned. "So other people gave him that nickname too, huh? So he really _is_ a narcissist!"

"Huh?" Once again, Gene was lost.

"Naru is short for narcissist, right?"

The boy burst out laughing. "That's gold! That _is_ fitting, isn't it?" When Mai tilted her head in confusion at his outburst, he explained, "I had thought you called him _Noll_."

" _No-ru_? Is that his real name?"

Gene blinked. "You don't know his name?" When she shook her head, he tipped his head and said with a tone of amusement in his voice, "You don't even know his name and he's managed to piss you off this much? I truly don't understand this weird... relationship between you."

Mai huffed and crossed her arms. "There's no _relationship_ between us. We just have mutual distaste for each other, I suppose."

The boy stored away this new development in his mind and planned to share every bit with Yasuhara at the next opportunity. "My brother's name is Oliver. Noll is a nickname that not many know of. Only a very few people close to him call him that."

"Oh. You're right. _No-ru_ sounds really similar to _Na-ru_. I should probably not call him that anymore then," she said thoughtfully.

Their conversation was interrupted once again when someone called out to Gene, letting him know that warm-ups were starting. He bit his lip and reached for the fountain behind her to take a quick sip of water, then placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as he carefully wiped the side of his mouth with the other and said, "Why don't you stay and watch the game? I'd like to talk with you more after the match." Mai blushed deeply as he gave her another smoldering smile.

"Y-yes, I was planning to anyway. Good luck on your match and I'll be waiting then."

He nodded cheerfully and ran toward the rest of his team to join them on their quick warm up drills. Mai watched him as he found his spot beside his grumpy twin and wondered what he said in his brother's ear that earned him such an icy glare. Then with a deep breath, she turned her head to find where her friends had run off to and found them sitting together at the spectator bench placed by the court side. They opened their mouths to say something before she even fully reached them, but Mai decided to beat them to the punch and began explaining the whole situation. Satisfied with the answer, the three dropped their conversation and focused on the activity in front of them. By this point, several other students have come by to support their team as well.

The teams were allowed ten minutes of warm up. Once the time was up, the rest of the team split away from the group and exited the courts, leaving only the regulars to face off each other during the introductions. Mai caught Kashima's eyes and waved cheerfully, which the stoic boy did not return, but he at least made his way quietly toward her and sat down beside her. She introduced him briefly to Keiko and Michiru, who, like her, already knew him by name but had not officially spoken to in person. He politely returned their greetings.

"Will the captains from each school please step up?" the coach called out.

The three girls gasped as one of the twins stepped up. Beside her, Michiru asked if that was Gene or Oliver, and Mai would also have been wondering along with her if it weren't for the fact that the twin narrowed his eyes intimidatingly when the third year captain from the opposing team commented offhandedly that he thought he was only a second year student.

He answered curtly, "I am. What of it?" And immediately Mai knew it had to be the narcissist.

The rival captain became flustered and mumbled that he meant nothing by it, just that he was surprised. But Oliver had already moved on past the conversation and held out his hand for the customary handshake. The two then turned and took turns to announce their team's lineup.

"Singles 1: Matsuyama Toshiro." The Furudachi captain himself stepped up and obviously expected to shake hands with Oliver again, but was surprised when Oliver ignored him and looked to the side toward his much taller teammate.

"Singles 1: Lin Koujo," Oliver said in reply as Lin stepped up to shake the hand of his opponent. The two stepped back to their position in line.

Matsuyama recovered. "Singles 2: Yoshino Rin."

"Singles 2: Takigawa Houshou." Again, a friendly handshake was exchanged and the same happened for every introduction thereafter.

"Singles 3: Igarashi Mitsuki."

"Singles 3: Yasuhara Osamu."

"Doubles 1: Akifumi Yoshimi. Minami Reimi."

"Doubles 1: Eugene Davis," here Eugene stepped up, passing the tennis racket he was holding in his right hand to his left in order to free it for the handshake. "Oliver Davis," and Oliver himself stepped up to exchange their greetings with their opponents.

Michiru clapped silently and said excitedly in a whisper, " _Cool! Twinsies playing together!_ " Mai ignored her.

"Doubles 2: Dazai Katsuki. Kunikida Taizo."

"Doubles 2: John Brown. Sakauchi Tomoaki."

With the introductions complete, Oliver turned to their opponents and explained, "Our school only has four courts available at the moment so based on the drawing earlier, the singles 2 match will sit out until either singles 1 or 3 finishes up. Singles 1 and 3 will be held in courts 1 and 2, while doubles 1 and 2 will be held in courts 3 and 4."

At this, both SPR and Furudachi teams bowed their heads and shouted in unison, "Let's do our best!" before splitting up into their courts.

Mai fidgeted anxiously in her seat, excited for the match to start.

* * *

 **[1]** Hafu: mix Japanese/foreign


	8. Captain Oliver Davis

**Chapter 8**

Mai carefully watched as the narcissist, or as she now knew him: Oliver Davis, hit the ball back with ease. It was like watching him move underwater and she suddenly found herself out of breath. There was just something so graceful with the way he moved, looking oh so _fluid_. And so confident.

"So he's really the captain, huh?" she asked absentmindedly.

"For the third time, _yes_." Kei closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples. What was so hard to believe about that? As far as he knew, Oliver Davis fit the very image of a captain: intimidating, strict, knowledgeable, reliable, composed, skillful. Even though he was only a second year student, as long as Couch Toujo, Takigawa-senpai, Lin-senpai, and the rest of the team respected him, he was willing to accept it. He turned to the girl beside him and said pointedly, "I don't understand why you seem so surprised about it, Taniyama-san." He raised his brow when he only received a vague shrug.

On court 3, Eugene Davis was calmly dribbling the tennis ball. He brushed his unruly bangs out of his eyes and called out, "Two-zero, thirty-fifteen," before throwing the ball up high in the air to make the serve. Mai thought his service motion didn't look quite as precise and controlled like Naru's form, but it was impressively clean and graceful nonetheless. The ball was fast, though unfortunately, it went too low and got caught in the net. Gene clicked his tongue in annoyance.

His brother turned to him and raised his brow mockingly as if to say, ' _Really? What the hell was that?'_

Gene rolled his eyes and took out another ball from his pocket, calling out once again, "Second serve..."

Mai noticed that he made a slight change to his motion this time. After hitting the ball, instead of following through and ending with his arm pointing straight down after swinging like he did before, his right arm was now awkwardly twisted off away from his body, to the right. The new serve was a bit slower, flying at a higher arc over the net with plenty of clearance, before sharply dipping down and landing on the opposite service box. The ball then did a curious thing. Mai could have sworn the opponent had been situated properly to return it based on the trajectory that the ball _should_ have taken, but as it bounced back up, it suddenly kicked towards the left, forcing the opponent to side step to avoid being hit and barely manage to hit it back. Unfortunately for them, Naru was already at the offensive up at the net and promptly shot the ball back toward their undefended side.

"Nice shot, Noll," the older twin called out.

Mai turned to Kei and asked, "Kashima-san? What was that? The service motion was changed just slightly and the ball bounced weird. How did Davis-san do that?"

Kei nodded and inwardly admired her astute observation. "That was a kick serve."

When he met a blank look, he elaborated, "You get two chances at serving. For the first serve people usually use what's called a 'flat' serve, meaning little to no spin is put on the ball so that it flies off straight, fast, and heavy, making it a good offensive move. If done extremely well it makes for an intimidating 'service ace', but the downside is that it's very difficult to control. Gene-senpai's flat serves tend to miss a lot," Kei admitted.

Back on the court, Gene reached out to tap his brother on the shoulder as they switched sides. Behind the baseline on the other side, Gene began dribbling the ball once more as he announced, "Forty-fifteen." He tried for another flat serve but hit the net once again. He swore out loud.

"You really need to work on that."

"Yes, _Noll_ , I know. Thank you. " Gene muttered irritably. He went through his ritualistic motions again and hit another kick serve, this time, instead of making it jump toward his opponents body, he spun the ball to make it kick away. The opponent was taken by surprise and stumbled clumsily, unable to even touch the ball.

"Game," Gene called out.

Mai and everyone else watching cheered enthusiastically. Someone shouted, "Nice ace, Gene-san!"

Kei hummed in admiration before turning back to her to continue his lecture. "If you miss the first serve you only get one more chance to get it in, so people usually opt to play it safer. But if you just hit a slower flat serve it makes it too easy for the opponent to return and you end up losing service advantage. To counteract this, people put a 'spin' on the ball by hitting it at an angle on the point of contact, so that on the rebound the ball's trajectory kicks off in different directions and put the opponents off-balance. This is the type of serve that Gene-senpai really shines in. He is able to put so much spin on the ball and can actually make it kick to the direction he wants it to go to."

"Is it really difficult to do that?"

Kei nodded. "Think about it: there's many parameters involved. First, your throw matters. If the ball is already spinning when you throw it up in the air, it will simply detract from the spin you apply to it. Next, you need to worry about the time and point of contact. If you hit it too high or low, there's a chance it will hit the frame, or it will be too far on the edge. Either way, you aren't able to brush the ball properly to impart a spin on it. Next you need to know precisely what direction you need to hit it. For example, to make it kick to your opponent's left side, you'll need to apply a spin from the 8 to 2 o'clock direction, but the point of contact lasts only a millisecond so it's quite hard to time. Lastly, you also need to read your opponent's body language so you can make an educated guess as to how they will react. The serve is still a slower shot after all, so if the opponent reads you, they might be able to return it back easily. It's like a game of chess."

Mai blinked rapidly and nodded in amazement. "Wow, that does sound complicated." She turned her attention back to the courts and saw that the score card now read three-to-zero. After a quick water break, the two teams walked past each other to switch court position.

As the twins passed right in front of them, Mai could barely hear the older Davis say in a low tone, "You've noticed that Yoshimi guy has a weak backhand?"

Naru nodded. "He likes to step around the ball to have the forehand shot. Just pull him out wide then hit down the line. Minami is fast on his feet though, so he'll probably cover, but that will open _his_ backhand side to an attack."

"Right. So we move up quick and make a wall..." their voices trailed off as they moved away.

Some time after the match resumed, Mai sighed once again. Picking up the earlier conversation she said, "From the looks of it, Captain is also a genius."

Kei thought about it. "I believe he is the top student of all the second years, so yes."

Takigawa, who had been hanging out with the rest of the team all this time, got tired standing around and decided to sit down on the spectator bench. He saw Kashima with the three girls and decided to sit beside them, and overhearing their current topic, jumped in on their conversation. "Not just academically. ' _Captain'_ is also gifted in tennis. The team is very lucky to have him leading us, you know," he declared proudly.

"Hi, Bou-san!" Michiru and Keiko chirped excitedly. Mai smiled at him and gave him a friendly wave.

"Yo!"

"Not that I doubt his ability- though I haven't really seen him play except in mock matches and practice- but why do you say that, Takigawa-senpai?" Kei asked.

"Because he's good. _Crazy_ good. Did you know he easily snagged singles 1 last year, as a first year student?"

All four of his underclassmen looked at him in astonishment.

Kei immediately added, "But that's almost an impossible feat. Positions are severely limited and try-outs can get intense. It's hard enough for most _second_ years to fill in singles 3 or doubles 2 spots when there are third years around."

"Exactly."

"...Were there no third years?"

"Oh no, there were plenty upper-classmen. Strong ones, too. Actually our lineup was scarily overpowered. The regulars were _all_ third years so we were pretty confident of at least getting close to National finals, but then when Davis came to join the team as a first year and blew everyone away during our trial matches, it became obvious that we needed to move people down so he could play Singles 1. Many of the seniors resented him for it because they felt he took the spot that was 'rightfully' theirs. As if there's such thing," he scoffed in pure distaste before continuing. "So some of the benched and regular seniors actually left the team, and both Lin and I were able to get a chance to become regulars. Thankfully the Captain last year swallowed his ego and relented his singles 1 position over to Davis, so we had a very strong singles lineup with Lin in third. We were so close. We actually got -"

"- To the semi-finals," Kei finished for him. It was an outstanding feat. SPR was known to have a strong team, but never before had they reached the semi-finals prior to last year, and apparently Oliver Davis was the likely reason for that. It seemed there was quite a lot of things he didn't know about. He absolutely hated being ignorant. He furrowed his brows and mumbled, "I knew he was a strong player, but I had no idea he was actually better than Lin-senpai or you."

"Weren't you wondering why Coach made him a captain?"

"Because of his personality? He has a very commanding presence, as you know."

Takigawa laughed. "Yes, _I know_. But why did you think Coach entrusted him to train us most of the time?"

Kei looked nonplussed. "I honestly thought he just preferred to help out with our drills because he wanted to be a coach eventually."

Takigawa chuckled as a response and shook his head. "You weren't here to see him play at his best, but Davis is extremely talented and strong. It would be wasteful to see him stick to coaching when he still has so much untapped potential of his own."

Kei pressed, "So why is Oliver-senpai playing doubles now then? If he is that strong, much stronger than Lin-senpai, then shouldn't he be playing Singles 1? Gene-senpai is a strong player, and Yasuhara-senpai complements his style very well, so I don't understand why it's necessary to put Oliver-senpai in doubles to support him."

Takigawa shook his head sadly. "No, we're not trying to buff up our doubles play, Kashima. Although individually they might not be able to outdo me or Lin, together with their teamwork, Gene and Yasuhara are quite formidable opponents. Davis being put in doubles is for his safety."

He opened up his water bottle and took a drink before resuming, "Near the end of the previous school year (so that puts it just several months ago, now that I think about it), Davis tweaked his shoulder during an important match point that he absolutely did not want to give up on. He ended up winning the game eventually, but the strain on his shoulder then put strain on his elbow, and by the time the match finished, he'd already aggravated his injuries too much. He ended up losing his match the next day. As for his knee injury, Gene said that was something that flared up from time to time, which unluckily resurfaced just recently. So at the beginning of this school year, Coach made an important decision. He knew that Davis would keep pushing himself to exhaustion and likely cause irreversible damage to his joints if he kept playing, so initially he wanted to bench him."

His audience gasped. "Yeah, exactly. That didn't go over well, so instead he decided to pair him up with Gene in doubles since he's the player Davis would trust the most out of all of us to cover for him if needed. He still gets to play, the position puts less strain on him, and everyone's happy. Well, except Davis, naturally. But he relented, eventually."

Kei mulled it over. "What match was so important that he'd risk his health over it? Was it his last match at Nationals?"

"No, he won that easy," Takigawa said flippantly. Then, with a gleam in his eye, he answered, "It was for the semi-finals on the _All-Japan Juniors_. Lost in the final round badly, unfortunately."

Kei gaped at him, completely stunned. The All-Japan Juniors was an individual tournament that pit the best of the best in the nation. Only nationally ranked people under the age of eighteen had a real chance at winning, and the resultant winner of that tournament gets to be a _wild-card_ for the Shimadzu All-Japan Championship, an actual professional competition. He had _no_ _i_ dea their Captain was such a high-level player. To compete and advance to the final round in such a tournament! That must mean that Oliver Davis was not only nationally ranked in the Junior's division, he was probably _very_ close to the top of the list. His mind felt completely blown.

Although Mai got the gist of how important this piece of information was, it was still beyond her comprehension. Basically, when it came down to it, she understood that Oliver Davis was not only sporty, he was next-level sporty. And he was extremely intelligent. And he was extremely handsome. All in all, the person was just too extreme.

Mai thought the whole thing was too depressing. No wonder the guy was such a narcissist. He really was perfect in every way.

-000-

Mai was able to follow the matches pretty well, thanks to Kashima who kindly provided her with explanations. By this time, Takigawa had already begun playing at court 1 since Lin was able to finish off his opponent fairly quickly with relative ease. Lin had not even dropped a single game. It seemed to Mai that Takigawa was a person who fed off the energy of others, so with Lin's resounding victory fresh in the air, he began his match with a good, fighting spirit. All seemed good on his end so far.

Yasuhara started off slow, but was now quickly gaining momentum and had managed to almost even out the score at three-to-two. Takigawa had commented beforehand that he was most likely just fighting his nerves, but once he'd established a groove, then it would be smooth sailing from there on out. "Yasuhara is a very intelligent player, after all," he had said.

Over at court 4, she saw Brown and Sakauchi having some problems with their match-up. So far Brown and Sakauchi had dropped three games compared to their four wins.

Surprisingly, although they started off very strong, the twins seemed to now be having difficulties as well. As time went on, their opponent started catching up, putting their score to five-all. If they couldn't win the next two games, they would have to go to a tie breaker.

"Looks like Furudachi actually has a pretty decent doubles team," Kei commented and Mai nodded.

Oliver was getting impatient. His shoulder and forearm were now really starting to give him trouble and he wanted nothing else but to end the points quickly. Even _he_ knew he was reaching his limit.

On hindsight he probably should have just served _normally_ rather than using his less powerful truncated motion that was meant to lessen the load on his shoulder. Even though it would have undoubtedly aggravated his injuries, maybe at least it could have ended the match a lot sooner. Which option would have been worse?

In that instant, the boy named Minami hit a shot aimed right between the twins, temporarily confusing them. Ordinarily it should have been Oliver's ball since he had the safer forehand shot, but he would have had to run up to it. Since Oliver's knees were also injured, they had agreed beforehand that Gene would take care of the contested middle balls so that Oliver could focus on covering his back-hand side (which would be nearly impossible for Gene to cover), but since the ball was just so close, Oliver had moved to take it by instinct. Gene had already begun his move, and when the two realized they were about to collide, they halted in their tracks and the ball whizzed by. The game score was now thirty-to-forty, the enemy's advantage.

Oliver scowled and mentally cursed himself. Then out loud he stated, "That was my mistake." He had made up his mind.

Gene sighed. Usually in those cases, Yasuhara would have given him some sort of an apologetic pat, or done something to lighten up the mood, but instead, Oliver simply turned around and returned to his position without any other word. He regretfully noted how his younger brother had learned to be so independent that he'd become a terrible doubles partner. He wanted to lighten him up and tell him to not mind, but thought that it would most likely just make him even more agitated.

 _"No. In times like these, it's best to settle down and take a deep breath. Re-assess the situation. Play a bit safer and wiser,"_ _he thought._ He looked toward his twin to give him a reassuring grin, but Oliver didn't even look his way. He shook his head. " _He's a top level player. He knows what he needs to do."_

Minami hit an easy serve and Gene saw him make the mistake of moving closer toward the middle prematurely, leaving his back-hand side largely unprotected. There was definitely a huge opportunity for Oliver to hit the ball to the alleys, wide enough for Minami to be unable to catch it in time. Just in case the opponent did manage to hit it back, Gene got ready to move up, anticipating the opponent would at least be put off-balance and planned on volleying the ball back to win the point.

But to his surprise, instead of doing the most logical play, Oliver instead blasted the ball back right in between the opponents, through the narrow opening of what should have been a very tight defense. Definitely not a safe play. For him to have the amount of skill required to hit the shot successfully and have the raw power behind it, was nothing less than shocking. The opposing players and audience watching the game were momentarily stunned (and truthfully, so was Gene).

It was an audacious display of strength, an obvious, direct challenge to their previous point, as if he was saying, " _Try messing with me like that again and I'll make you regret it."_

Gene sighed. And then smirked. His brother made such a terrible doubles partner, but he made for an even more terrible opponent.


	9. Beginning of a Friendship

**Chapter 9**

Oliver craned his neck side to side, performing big, but slow and careful shoulder rolls to loosen up his stiff joints. Next, he did repetitive pronation of his wrist, noting how the fleshiest part of the muscle by his elbow twinged in pain ever time it got pulled by the motion. He held out his hand and with his palm facing up, watched in morbid amusement how his fingers danced along with nervous, involuntary twitches, and feeling instantly fatigued, dropped his right arm down and began kneading the muscles to relax it.

He sighed and from the balcony of the school's rooftop, looked absentmindedly in the distance, his eyes automatically seeking out the tennis courts. It irked him to admit, but he really couldn't push his endurance much longer without causing irreversible damage to his tendons, and contrary to what others believed, that was something he absolutely did not want to do. But what other option did he have?

The title of Captain came at a high price. Though he couldn't say it was a position he even minutely coveted, he wasn't remiss enough to refuse the title when it was offered to him, understanding from his former Captain and teammates' urging that his superior talent and skills were desperately needed as it would provide the team the edge to finally take the trophy home. So he rose to the challenge, accepting the terrible responsibility of meeting everyone's expectations that he would guide and lead the team to the championships. Besides, the road to his acceptance into the team hadn't been easy; who could blame him from feeling just a bit smug at knowing that he, the 'poseur first year' as the previous third years initially called him in derision, have become their ultimate weapon? They had __begged__ him to be the next captain, how could he let them down now?

Despite the blatant bullying they put him through after he beat them all fair and square, with some even threatening to quit their positions because of how 'irritably stuck up' he was for stealing their spot, Oliver could at least respect the fact that most of them eventually saw reason and accepted the truth, swallowing their broken pride for the sake of the team. The former Captain was the most admirable of all. Not because he was the voice of reason from the very beginning, no. In fact, the brunt of the bullying came from him, but although it was irritating, Oliver appreciated the fact that the Captain had enough pride and self-respect to want to hold on to his Singles 1 spot as best as he could, getting properly angry when it was stolen from him. To Oliver, a captain couldn't very well be a proper captain without pride. Furthermore, a captain couldn't be a proper captain if he didn't put the team's interests above his own. The fact that the prideful Tanaka-buchou angrily and reluctantly relinquished his position with regard to his own selfish interests, but assuredly and confidently handed it over to Oliver when he thought about the __team's__ best interests, made him, to Oliver's eyes, a right, proper Captain.

So how could he even consider 'taking it easy' now, when there was so much expectation riding on his shoulders? Especially since he had made a terrible blunder by selfishly getting hurt at the individual tournaments? To have to back out from the team when they need him the most - it would be despicable. And yet he knew that if he continued to push on like this, it would only be a matter of time before his body would just simply give out and he would be unable to compete. At all.

What was he supposed to do?

He winced and couldn't help a short, strangled cry come from his throat as he massaged a very sensitive spot on his arm. It took him several seconds to clear his head before recalling his conversation with Coach Toujo the day before.

Right after the huddle, Coach took him straight to the infirmary himself to have a chat with the nurse. For the third time that month alone he had to sit through her tests, asking him to flex at different positions and firmly pressing on several spots along his forearm to find his tender spots, forcing him to awkwardly wince in pain. This time, however, the nurse was firm in her orders for him to go to a doctor to get an X-ray and MRI done to ensure no tear had occurred in the tendon due to his repetitive abuse.

After leaving her office, Couch Toujo had pulled him aside, and with an uncharacteristically austere demeanor, reprimanded him, "Oliver-kun, for God's sake, __please__ listen to reason. Go to the doctor and get this checked out and __take a break__. I let you play with Gene in doubles because I thought we had an understanding that you'd allow him to cover for you and that you wouldn't try to aggravate your condition further!"

He had frowned at that and replied that he had every intention to win with Gene. Originally he meant to play more strategically and carefully in order to avoid aggravating his injuries, but when he began getting fatigued and made careless mistakes, he couldn't exactly leave his partner to clean up after his blunders. So he made a calculated move - finish the game quicker by playing more seriously and take the win.

However to his chagrin, Coach had replied pointedly, "This was the kind of thinking that led you to be in this position in the first place. I would have thought you'd at least learn when to accept your losses so you may continue to fight another time."

That was a low blow, Oliver thought, one that he didn't know the usually easy-going Coach was capable of. But in fairness, he had been right. If only he hadn't insisted on pushing on despite his injuries during that semi-finals match, then he might have healed completely by now and be in perfectly good shape to lead the team for this year. And had it been worth it for him to continue on so stubbornly after all? He had lost badly in the final round anyway, giving an utterly dismal performance he was ashamed to even recollect.

But would he have been content if he had given up when he should? He had a feeling that if he had chosen differently, there would have just been a different regret in his heart. Whether or not it would have been better or worse than the one he was experiencing now, he would never be able to determine. He closed his eyes and leaned over the balcony.

He had a direct view of the vending machines across the building. ' _ _Tea sounds good__ ,' he thought, and to his surprise, saw Kashima and the Taniyama girl emerge in his view, walking together to get their drinks. Oliver was mildly intrigued. He knew his junior, the tall, first year Kashima Kei, was much like him in terms of personality: reserved, sarcastic, and averse to idle chit-chat, but there he was now engaged in a conversation with a very loud, bubbly brunette. Oliver couldn't hear what they were talking about, although it wasn't as if he had any intention of eavesdropping anyway, but judging from Taniyama's expressions it didn't seem to be school related. Unless she found homework and tests something to smile about.

Oliver turned his head away but found himself glancing back at them from the corner of his eye and caught her looking up at him. He gave no indication of noticing her, hoping that she wouldn't get any ideas of obnoxiously calling out to him, but suddenly she turned to Kashima, said a few quick words, and waved him a goodbye before the two split off, Kashima to continue on the direction he was going, and she running towards the direction of the building he was currently on. When she disappeared from his view, he sighed. And waited.

-000-

" _ _That's Naru up there, right? Or could it be Davis-san?__ " Mai thought as she raced upstairs. As she wondered about which of the twin was currently sulking all alone up there, she realized only too late as she opened the door and saw him with his back turned, that she really had no reason to go out of her way meet him. Why did she rush up here without any plan? Wouldn't it be too awkward to barge in on him, especially since he obviously wanted to be alone?

She mutely studied how the back of his shoulders sloped down just ever so slightly, looking a bit broader than she remembered, probably due to the fact that he was currently wearing the white, collared polo uniform, pressed to a point at the corner of the shoulder, while his usual dark grey blazer sat folded atop the nearby chair, neatly folded. Mai blinked and cleared her head. Perhaps she could still slowly back out? He didn't hear the door latch opening, right?

Realizing that it would be more awkward for her to simply back out now, she instead decided to play it cool by trying to sound nonchalant as she cried, "Oh, sorry, I didn't know someone was here already."

She watched him heave a sigh. Then he turned around to her and said sardonically, "Save your breath. I saw you look at me from below. You knew I was here, that's why you came up."

 _'This damn narcissist,'_ Mai thought irritably. ' _ _But dang it, he looks good in white.'__

She forced a laughter. "Oh, well, is it okay if I join you then?" He didn't reply, so she boldly stepped forward and stood beside him to his left, and mimicked his posture by leaning over the balcony. After a few seconds of silence, she smirked and asked, "Well? So did you order the dish I recommended?"

"Eventually."

Mai scoffed. "Well, did you like it then? How was it?"

Oliver breathed out sharply but then eventually answered, "It was decent."

Mai's smirk got wider as she echoed sarcastically, "'Decent'. Really, why can't you just admit it was good? I told you they make the best __Chukadon__. But really, to think you'd have a weakness. Kanji?" She laughed.

Oliver scowled. It was only natural he'd find Kanji difficult - would British people naturally have much exposure to those complicated word pictures, an apt description in his opinion, let alone have experience in writing or reading it? Was this something she should be relishing about? He recalled the events last night with a hint of annoyance.

After speaking privately with Coach Toujo, Oliver had walked back toward the courts and saw Gene chatting with the Taniyama girl. He had been about to let Gene know they should be heading home soon, until Yasuhara, who had been speaking with a girl Oliver did not know (not that he really knew many people), called out to Gene and told him they needed to stop by real quick for the student council meeting. After apologizing profusely to the brunette for having to leave so soon, Gene turned to him and asked if he could wait for a bit as he went to straighten some affairs. Having no other choice, Oliver had agreed and decided to relax in one of the school benches.

Eventually the rest of the team cleared out and Oliver was left sitting alone. Bored and a bit peckish, he had decided to seek out a nearby food place to get his dinner. He remembered then that Takigawa-san and the others frequently talked about a fairly cheap and quick Japanese family restaurant nearby. It was only several minutes away and was on their way home anyway; he had figured he could stay there until Gene finished and then meet up from there.

It was a nice, cozy looking shack, but when he entered through the doors, where a set of blue hanging curtains obstructed his direct view of the interior, he was enthusiastically greeted by the chef and servers and he immediately regretted his decision. The menu plastered up above the chef's overhead was written entirely in Kanji, and without pictures to at least show him what the dishes looked like, he would be entirely lost. He'd silently cursed.

Then came a small tap on his shoulder and the almost teasing remark of, "Having trouble deciding?"

When he turned around he came face to face with the brunette. He raised an eyebrow but didn't bother answering her, not that she waited for one anyway.

She smiled and chirped, "I recommend #7. It's their most popular dish."

He didn't even know why he'd turned to read the menu again to see what number seven was, he still couldn't read the damn Kanji. He'd asked, "... And what's #7?"

She seemed confused for a moment but replied, " _ _Chukadon.__ "

"... And what's __Chukadon__?" It annoyed him to not know and to have to rely on getting answers from her. He tried to not roll his eyes when it eventually dawned upon her that since he was actually British, he would not be familiar with a lot of the more exotic dishes.

"It means 'Chinese bowl'. The ingredients are all listed on the menu. It's basically a bowl topped with stir-fried vegetables and some meat, if you ask for it. They do something with their sauce! It really is very good. I don't like vegetables that much, but I can't get enough of it. I've actually just bought one, myself!" Then, finally realizing something, she asked slowly, "Wait... you couldn't read it. You don't know Kanji?"

Oliver had looked at her coldly.

"You don't know Kanji!" she cried, "Hah, now you can't make fun of me for my horrible English because you're bad with Japanese."

"I can speak and pronounce Japanese words just fine, unlike you, who can't even properly enunciate in English."

Mai crossed her arms and looked at him smugly. "Whatever. Doesn't change the fact you can't read Kanji. You're lucky I noticed you looking all helpless and came over."

He had scoffed at that. "You must be imagining things. I could have just ordered some random number, like #4."

"And then you'll be in for a surprise because #4 is their natto bowl. I don't peg you as a natto-eater. The stringiness and gooey-ness of it wouldn't fit your 'cool' image," she had retorted.

Upon hearing this, Oliver was, in truth, silently relieved . She had been right, he was not a fan of natto.

"Trust me," she said, "you'll like it."

He narrowed his eyes at her and ventured to comment, "You're being awfully friendly right now for someone who verbally abused my brother this afternoon, thinking it was me."

Mai shrugged and replied vaguely, "I learned a lot of things today and came to the conclusion that you deserve some respect, after all."

Before Oliver could ask what she meant, she quickly turned around and left him with a cheery good bye. He had sighed but decided it wouldn't hurt to trust her advice this one time and ordered the Chukadon.

And Mai had been right. The dish was actually quite good. In fact, he had a mind to go back again tonight... But he wasn't going to admit to that.

Oliver leaned his back against the balcony, propping his left elbow to hold himself up. Once again, he started doing his neck stretches and realized after a few minutes that the girl was staring at him, transfixed. He cocked his head and smirked at her, asking arrogantly, "Is there a reason you're staring at me? Am I really that attractive to you?"

Mai flushed. "What! N-no, you stupid narcissist! I was only wondering what __that__ was," she cried as she pointed at the strange, black adhesive she saw snaking up at the side of his neck.

He craned his head to the left and ran his fingers tenderly along the tape. "This... It's sports tape," he answered.

"Sports tape? What's it for?"

"Supposedly it pulls your skin away from injured or damaged tissues underneath to promote faster healing. I have doubts to the claim's authenticity, but I must admit it eases the pain somewhat."

"A simple tape can do that?" she wondered. "So is it really hurting much, your entire arm?" she asked worriedly. "Will you really have to get checked up by the doctor? You'll go, won't you?" When Oliver looked at her in surprise, she explained, "Davis-san (err, your brother I mean) and I happened to walk by and overheard your conversation with your coach."

"You mean you eavesdropped."

"No! I- well- yes. Sorry."

Oliver sighed. "No need. I'm sure it was Gene's idea."

Mai smiled sheepishly.

"Yes. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get everything checked out just to make sure I haven't damaged it severely."

Mai contemplated his answer for a while and the two stood again in silence. She remembered clearly the confusion that marred his face after being severely reprimanded by their coach. The coach had suggested for Oliver to be moved down to Doubles 2 with either John, or Sakauchi, and was given the option to decide who gets booted from the position. He had replied indignantly that he would not recommend breaking their duo apart since they were so in-tune with each other and could probably perform better playing together than if he were to cut in. " _ _Besides__ ," he added, " _ _that would leave a hole on our singles line-up. Neither one of them would be able to play properly; Yasuhara-san is even having trouble on his own__."

 _"Then perhaps my only other option is to bench you completely,_ " the coach had threatened.

At this, Oliver had stiffened up, clearly at a loss.

" _ _Oliver-kun, the team needs you, but you can't help them if you end up getting disabled from a permanent injury. And what about your own aspirations? Carry along with this and your chance of ever going professional will be threatened!"__

Hiding behind the wall several feet away, Eugene Davis had quietly sighed and murmured to her ears, " _ _You know it might really be for the best; he'll ruin himself doing this. Why does that__ _i_ diot __have to be so responsible? He should think more about himself in this situation__."

Mai and Eugene looked at each other with a grim smile, but knew it was only wishful thinking.

Then they heard Oliver's firm resolution. " _ _It won't happen again Coach. I'll be more mindful of my situation, but I'm afraid I'll have to insist on staying with Gene in Doubles 1. I won't be able to face Tanaka-buchou and our former teammates ever again if I were to give up now.__ "

Focusing back on the person in front of her, Mai said softly, "In spite of your pain..."

With a surprising new vigor, she continued, "Davis-san... I'm sorry. I didn't realize until now that I said something unfair to you a couple days ago."

Oliver turned his head to face her. He had a confused frown on his face. "I don't know what you mean."

"I called you stupid for continuing to practice even when you're already hurt. I talked like I knew what was good for you without even considering what you must have been going through." Mai took a deep breath. "Even though I might regret saying this because it'll probably just stoke your ego even more, but you're actually really amazing. After watching your match yesterday, speaking with Kashima-san and Davis-san (your brother, I mean), I came to realize how respectable you are."

"You said something vague like that last night."

"Is it really vague, or do you want me to elaborate just because you're fishing for compliments?"

Oliver scoffed. "I wasn't the one who brought it up. I was looking for an elaboration. But if you have some compliment to shower my way, you're more than welcome to do so."

"Always with that arrogance of yours! Ugh, well, I certainly __do__ regret saying it. But since I already started, then I might as well finish. I learned a lot about you yesterday and after accidentally overhearing-"

"-Eavesdropping."

"-Yes, whatever! Will you let me finish?!" she cried. "So after accidentally __eavesdropping__ on the conversation between you and your coach, Davis-san (your brother, I mean) -"

"-Will you stop specifying that __every__ time?"

"What are you complaining about now? I have to clarify, don't I? I call you the same."

"Then call us differently."

"Okay, so what would you like me to call you then?" she asked bluntly.

This sentence took Oliver by complete surprise. Usually whenever people needed to differentiate between him and Gene, other people naturally decided to refer to Gene with his given first name and leave him as 'Davis-san'. He wasn't quite used to being asked this question and as such, he was left temporarily speechless.

" ** _Ahrivah-san_**? Is it okay if I called you that?" When he cringed, she flushed indignantly. "Well __sorry__ if I said that wrong! It's hard for me to say!"

He shook his head in disbelief. "Your English is really awful. It's too pitiful to ask you to say that name when you obviously struggle so hard."

Mai took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. Really, why was she going off about how amazing this guy was? What a terrible mistake that was. "So what should I call you then, _Temporary-Doubles-1-san_?"

' _ _Temporary-Doubles-1-san? Of all the most idiotic things...__ ' Oliver thought, but decided to ignore her tongue-in-cheek remark. "The other day, you called me by name.

"By your name? Oh, you mean __Naru__?"

"Where did you hear that from? You have not met Gene by then."

"Oh, no," Mai laughed. "Davis-san explained to me that your nickname is **_Noru_** , but I was actually calling you Naru. I meant for it to be short for 'narcissistic' since I didn't have a clue who you were. Sorry, I didn't know it was too close to your actual nickname. I didn't mean to refer to you so intimately-"

"- ' _ _Naru'__? That's fine, if that's as far as your abilities allow."

Mai did a double take. "Call you Naru?"

The boy turned his head away lazily.

"O-okay then... Naru! Na-ru. Naru!"

"Must you always act so obnoxiously? ... And are you forgoing honorifics?" he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well it's weird to call you Narcissistic-san. Doesn't that sound too sarcastic? I think Naru fits you just fine. Or are you one of those people who like to be called -senpai? Naru-senpai?" she spat sourly.

Naru glared at her and changed the subject. "And you were saying? Assuming you can still remember your previous train of thoughts?"

"I don't feel like praising you now after you acted so arrogant!" Mai crossed her arms, but resumed nonetheless, "I had meant to tell you that after Davis-san explained everything to me, I came to respect how much you care about your teammates, and the fact that you work so hard because you don't want to let them down." Mai studied his reaction carefully, curious to know how he'd take this harmless confession.

Naru looked away and sighed. Why did it feel like he could share his thoughts with her? This inexplicable urge gnawed at him, so much so that eventually he relented and uttered, so softly it was almost inaudible, "I feel sick with self-loathing."

Her eyes immediately softened. "How come?"

"My... selfishness might just cost the team their chance at winning. If I quit now, it will be a disservice to them, especially to Takigawa-san and Lin. There won't be a second chance for them." He clenched his fists, but just to add more to his irritation, he was unable to hold it in position for too long.

"So you think it's only fair for you to make it up to them by holding on until the end of your season?"

"... Sounds just about right."

"So you think they'll be disappointed and blame you if you took some time to take care of yourself?"

Oliver frowned. "Perhaps they would, and they wouldn't be wrong to think so." He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It doesn't matter to me what people think, it's about the principle. It's my responsibility to them as a Captain to be there when I'm needed, and I've failed to think about the team when I made that selfish decision. The Captain and our seniors last year made a sacrifice for the team when they accepted that I was better than them and asked me to lead in Singles 1. And yet what have I done for my current team as their leader? It's unacceptable."

"Naru..." Mai looked on sadly. "You know, I think leaders in general need to be selfish and prideful, once in a while. That's what gives them the alpha personality that's needed to inspire others."

Oliver looked up. It startled him to hear his own thoughts echoed back to him like that, but he didn't think it would apply to him now.

"But you know what makes a __great__ leader? That despite being prideful they are able to admit mistakes, understand their limitation, and be willing trust that his teammates will pick up the slack for him so that he can continue to support them in other ways." She turned to him and smiled serenely, her short hair gently billowing against the breeze. "I think you've already covered two out of three. Now all you need is to trust your team."

Oliver's breath hitched and he was forced to avert his eyes. How stupid had he been? He had unknowingly acted like the arrogant third years from last year, but unlike them, his attitude was inexcusable for being unable to accept the truth that he was simply not well enough to provide his team the support he thought they needed. ' _ _Trust my team...'__ he echoed in his head, and he remembered everyone's words to him. They had asked him to take it easy, a silent, indirect way of asking him to trust them to take care of the team while he recuperated, and he had stoutly refused them all. He had not trusted his team.

Out loud, he spat bluntly, "I have been... stupid."

Mai hummed in approval. "At least you know."

"And what do you suggest?"

"Take a rest! You'll definitely be no good to the team if you just get hurt further. I don't know if you've noticed, but everyone looks up to you. I think your determination and loyalty to the team really inspired them, you know? Now it's time for you to sit back and let them do their best to inspire you back. Trust they'll do their best to keep your team in the game, until the time you get better and join them on the way to Nationals."

Oliver laughed dryly but reluctantly ceded, "... That was surprisingly insightful."

"Well I am excellent at understanding people problems and give great advice."

"Acting arrogant does not suit you."

"Hey, what! Take that back! Wait, was that a compliment, or an insult?"

Oliver harrumphed. "Idiot."

They shared a silent look, letting the words settle around them. Another gentle breeze wafted through, blowing some strands of her hair to her face, which she carelessly shoved away. Oliver mused about how unaffected her manners were, how surprisingly honest and insightful she was, and for the first time, found himself smiling sincerely.

She wasn't so bad.

He turned away and said, "Funny. I think Gene had been trying to tell me this all along. Why didn't I understand it before."

"Probably because he's too close to you. Sometimes you need an outsider to point things out."

He smirked. "Yes, and we're complete strangers to each other after all."

Mai furrowed her brows. "Are you still on about that? I said we're not __really__ strangers. I mean, I know you're Oliver Davis," she ignored another frown at her attempts at pronouncing his name, "You're a foreigner, British, and you have a twin brother. You're the captain of the boys' tennis team, even though you're only a second year, and became singles 1 on your first year. You're a 'seeded' player and compete at high level tournaments. Currently injured on your right shoulder, right elbow, and have some recurring knee issues, but despite this you're quite godly at tennis. You're smart, responsible, hard working, and loyal. But as a downside you're incredibly arrogant, prideful, sarcastic, mean, and __highly__ narcissistic. Did I miss anything?" she asked with an impish grin and laughed heartily when he looked away irritably, unable to muster a reply.

"Seems I captured all the points. And I've already introduced myself to you once, but you probably weren't paying attention so I'll say it again, I'm -"

"- Taniyama Mai, first year student, class 1-C. You've been staying late to take some remedial classes and hate the fact that you can't seem to enjoy your free time doing the things you want without worrying about school. You're straightforward, honest, unaffected, and not afraid to own up to your own mistakes and insecurities. You learn pretty quick and have good observation skills, and therefore can be surprisingly insightful. The downside is that you're loud, obnoxious, easily angered, a terrible liar, and an unfortunate idiot." He looked at her and challenged, "Was there anything I missed?"

She scowled back at him. "Jerk."

He gave her a nonchalant shrug and looked at his watch. "Taniyama-san -"

"- Mai. You can just call me Mai, if you want. I don't like the way you say my name in fake politeness like that. It's gross."

He almost chuckled at this, but he held it back. "Then, Mai, I suggest you start heading back to class. There's only three minutes left until lunch ends and it would be best if you avoided having to run up the stairs and unnecessarily colliding with others on the way."

"Aw crap!" she turned around and made to open the door, but stopped when Naru called out one last time.

"Oh, Mai?" he said, nonchalantly as he slipped into his grey blazer and began buttoning it up. "It seems you did miss something."

She narrowed her eyes. "And what would that be?"

He smirked. "I believe you had called me, in your own words, 'handsome'."

Mai flushed and rolled her eyes, violently tugging the door open and crying out loud enough for her voice to echo along the hallway, "You are _so_ arrogant, you know that? Just how self-assured are you, Naru?"

She stomped angrily down the stairs, prompting Oliver, who had by that time reached the door and stepped in just a few steps behind her, to silently chuckle in amusement.


	10. A Problem

**Chapter 10**

Eugene Davis was exhausted, but he persevered with his note-taking duty until the very last minute, even as the teacher started rushing to wrap up the day's topic of 'integration by substitution'. Gene bit his lip and frowned, struggling to catch any key words and jotting them down, denoting a little star next to them and in parenthesis writing, ' _Do an overview for these'_ on the side. Only once the teacher stopped speaking did he drop his pencil.

He did a small stretch and gave a long sigh, jumping just a little when Yasuhara suddenly clasped his shoulder from the back.

"Wow, that was the most intense I've seen you during lecture," his friend teased.

"The notes were for Noll. He asked me to take them for him," he replied with a shrug as he stuffed his brother's black notebook into his bag.

"Oh, right. He's at his doctor's appointment right now, isn't he?" When Gene nodded, Yasuhara continued, "It's still surprising to me that _he_ actually asked Coach if he can take some time out to recover. Hasn't Coach been trying to tell him to do that for a while now and he's just been stubbornly refusing? I wonder what happened last week? Do you think he just freaked out when you and him almost lost the practice match?"

Gene shook his head. "Noll getting freaked out? Right." He and Yasuhara shared a glance before laughing and conceding the thought ludicrous. "You saw him get super pissed off and decimate them in the end, right? Nah, something changed his mind."

Truthfully, Gene wasn't all too sure what brought on the sudden change in attitude either, but he had a vague feeling that his brother finally saw reason owing to a certain brunette. Something must have happened sometime after their game on Wednesday and before Friday last week, when Noll gave his temporary resignation as a player. He could safely rule out Coach's influence since his entreaties seemed to have fallen on deaf ears when Eugene last saw them talk, and besides, Coach seemed really surprised at his sudden change of heart. Since no one else he knew had spoken extensively to Noll, and as far as he knew, only he and Taniyama-san had managed to overhear the severity of Noll's injuries, he assumed she must have exerted some influence on him (because there was no way that stubborn idiot would somehow magically wake up one day and realize his own stupidity).

Today, Gene planned to speak with her and find out exactly what happened.

"Lunch at the cafeteria today?" Gene asked.

"Sure. I just need to speak with Takako-san about a project though. Wait for me?"

"Actually, I have to catch someone as well. When you're done, meet me downstairs by class 1-C and we'll head down together."

Yasuhara raised a brow. "Oh? Well, sure. See you there, then."

Gene stepped out of their classroom and decided to stop by the restroom first to address nature's calling, before eventually making his way downstairs. Upon arriving he saw several students were already coming in and out of the classroom and wondered if he'd already missed her.

He stopped the next group of students coming out of the door and asked nicely, "Hi, I'm looking for Taniyama-san. Is she still around in the classroom or has she already left for lunch?" The girls blushed and rushed back in, causing some sort of commotion. He decided to walk off toward the other side of the hall and wait.

"Mai-chan! Mai-chan! There's a very handsome senpai outside looking for you."

Mai, who had been busy chatting up with Keiko, Michiru, and Kashima, looked up at the girls with a confused look and immediately thought, " _Naru's outside?"_

She thanked them, grabbed her can of black tea, and followed them out. She had actually just returned from the vending machines and was mildly disappointed to not see him up at the rooftop. She thought perhaps it was just yet too early for him to have made his way up there and was actually planning on checking up on him again later. Why was he going out of his way to come meet her?

She saw him leaning by the windows with his arms folded across his chest. Upon seeing her he immediately straightened up and smiled brilliantly, greeting her with a cheerful, "Nice to see you again, Taniyama-san."

Although she was surprised that it wasn't who she expected, she greeted him just as cheerily, "Ah, it's you, Davis-san! It's been a while. What's up?"

"Just wanted to talk to you for a bit. Do you have time right now?" Although Mai smiled and nodded, Gene noticed the look of confusion on her face. He couldn't blame her. He hadn't seen her since last week after the match, after all, and for him to show up so suddenly now would naturally make her wonder. With a grin, he teased, "Were you thinking it'd be Noll?"

"Eh?!" Mai snorted and flushed. Although to her embarrassment, she really had thought it'd be him. Eventually she acquiesced, "Ah, well… only because he still has to return my pen."

"Your pen?"

"Yesterday he was making a phone call and needed to write something down so I let him borrow mine. The jerk never returned it and I forgot to ask for it back before lunch ended."

Gene's brows furrowed together. He'd been wondering where Noll have been disappearing to during lunch time these past few days. He knew his brother did his best to avoid eating with him and Yasuhara on certain days when a particular raven-haired beauty was going to be present, but he had no idea he'd been partaking in a rendezvous with someone else _,_ least of all with the girl who supposedly hated his guts the last time he saw them interact a week ago. " _You've_ been hanging out with him during lunch?" he asked with a tone of incredulity.

She must have figured out the undertone in his words so she answered shyly, "Well it's just that lately whenever I go out to buy drinks, I see him hanging out by himself at the rooftop. So I stop by to chat for a few minutes, but that guy barely even talks to me and just reads his book or does some stretches, so I wouldn't exactly call that 'hanging out'. Come to think of it, I'm probably just annoying him, huh?" Mai considered this for a few seconds before shrugging and flippantly saying, "Oh well. But why doesn't he hang out with you, Davis-san? Have you guys been fighting?"

Gene stifled the laughter that was in his throat, greatly amused at how she unexpectedly brushed away the fact that she may have been giving his brother unwanted attention. Exactly what were they to each other, really?

"Uhh, no," he finally answered, "I guess sometimes he just wants to be alone. Well, _most_ the time. Not very social, that one."

Mai laughed. "Yeah, tell me about it. So anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Yes, Noll's actually absent for today."

 _'Oh? Well that's good, otherwise I would have come out to check up on him later_ ,' she thought to herself. ' _I wonder if something came up?'_

Sensing her silent confusion, Gene elaborated, "He went to the doctor to get his MRI and X-rays done for his arm."

"Ah!" she exclaimed, "So _that's_ what the phone call yesterday was about!"

"Also last Friday our Coach announced that Noll pulled himself out of our lineup, which was really quite surprising. He still shows up to drill us after school and is still acting Captain, but he hasn't been playing tennis since, and I have a feeling I have _you_ to thank for that. How'd you get that stubborn idiot to listen to you?"

She linked her arms behind her back and hummed in surprise. Lately she haven't had much time to stop by so she really had no idea what the team's been up to lately. Ever since Kashima had suggested for her to go watch the girls' tennis team practice match against a neighboring school last Thursday, she had been busy loitering around their side of the courts, at the opposite part of the campus. Unfortunately their practice hours ended only about half an hour before the boys' did, so it didn't really give her much time to swing by. Also for some reason the subject was never brought up during their lunch meetup, not that they really spoke much anyway, so she was glad to finally know the outcome of their talk, although quite honestly, she already had the feeling that Naru was going to follow through what they talked about anyway.

"I really didn't do much for him though, we just spoke a few words. But it's good to hear he's finally taking care of himself," she answered simply but refused to say anymore. If Naru felt uncomfortable discussing the issue with his own brother, then it wasn't her place to elaborate.

Gene, sensing that she knew more than she let on, inwardly sighed. It bugged him terribly and, if he dared admit to himself, made him somewhat jealous. Why did Noll decide to confide in her, some girl he just barely met, rather than with him, his twin brother? He was supposed to be the closest one to him! ' _What's so special about her',_ he asked himself as he curiously studied the girl before him.

Taniyama Mai appeared to him, in every way, to be a relatively 'ordinary' person. She put on no make-up, didn't seem to put much effort in getting her hair done, and wore no jewelry of any kind. Her body was averagely built, like most of the girls her age: slender and petite, though she was a bit on the shorter side. She was not in the least ugly, but she wasn't mind-blowingly beautiful either, though he had to admit her face was pleasantly attractive enough. With her big, cinnamon colored eyes that seemed to come alive with every emotion, along with her easily readable face that Gene was beginning to notice often flushed in embarrassment, he supposed she could be considered fairly cute. He hadn't known her much, but he could tell that she was pretty down-to-earth and mild-mannered for the most part, though she did exhibit an amusing contradictory nature of being both shy and meek, yet tomboyish and brash at the same time, having more than enough fight in her to stand up for herself when her patience was exhausted.

Since Noll seemed to have taken a strange liking to her (or at least tolerate her, which was a feat in itself as Noll disliked people in general), Gene also found himself strangely wanting to get to know her better. He swiftly made a decision.

"Taniyama-san, I'd love to take you out to lunch one day, as thanks for helping my brother. Would you be interested in going out with me?"

' _Wait, did he just ask me out_?' she wondered and for a moment she forgot to breathe.

Something like this had never happened to her before. This was something new!

She stood there dumbly, her poor mind overloading as Gene looked at her with his killer, charming smile.

God, just how beautiful was he?

Then, realizing that he was watching her expectantly, Mai froze up. It was just a simple invitation as _thanks_ for helping out his brother, Mai tried to reiterate in her head; he was _not_ just asking her out on a date or anything.

She couldn't look him straight in the eyes as she fumbled out, "Th-there's no need to thank me, really, b-but yes... I wouldn't mind going out with… with you..." Why was she stuttering so much?! And had she just shamefully said 'yes'?

Eugene grinned. "Great! Would you be available this weekend? Ahh -" he paused. "Shoot, I remembered I have some stuff to take care of..."

"Ohh, that's okay, I can't do this weekend either. There's another test coming up next week and I'll be having study sessions with my friends." She secretly sighed in relief. That wouldn't have given her enough time to wrap her head around the idea of going out with him.

"Okay, how about next week after?"

Mai slowly nodded. Maybe an entire week would be enough. "Uhh, okay. I don't usually plan that far ahead. I'll make sure to not schedule anything then..."

He took out his phone and set a reminder on his calendar. Then he opened up a brand new contact information and asked confidently, "Can I have your number? Makes it easier to meet up if we can text or call."

"Oh, of course." She carefully recited it to him.

"Okay, I just texted you so you now have my number, too."

"I left my phone in my bag, but I'll go check it as soon as I can and reply to you to confirm." Mai wondered at how easy this came to him.

Gene nodded and slid his phone back into his pocket. "Man, I'd really love to take you out sooner, but this week's kind of bad..." He was about to suggest taking her out for ice cream at their next day off from tennis activities when Yasuhara called out to him from behind.

"Gene, all done! You ready?" when Yasuhara noticed his friend in conversation with a young lady, he made an exaggerated face and apologized cheekily. "Oh, my bad for interrupting. Hey wait -" he tilted his head in recognition.

"Ah, you're Yasuhara-san, right?" the girl asked.

"Yes indeed! And I'm sorry but I didn't get your name?"

"Taniyama Mai." The two exchanged bows. "I'm sorry again for bumping into you that one time."

Yasuhara laughed. "Oh there's no need. The force of impact actually probably hurt you more. But how'd you know my name?"

"Oh, Naru told me in passing."

Yasuhara raised his brow in confusion. "' _Naru'_?" he echoed out loud. Who was that? Next to him, Gene laughed and commented about how she ended up sticking with that name after all.

Mai replied, "Well he said it was okay to call him that since he can't stand how awful I am at pronouncing his name properly."

"What? You mean he actually agreed to it? Does he know that it's short for Narcissistic?"

"Yeah, I explained it all. I was surprised, too!"

Yasuhara felt left out of the loop and he pouted at them semi-jokingly and cut them off before he could be left further in the dust. "Wait, what's going on?"

Mai looked at him and quickly apologized. "Oh, sorry, I was talking about err... Davis-san's brother," she clarified, not wanting to embarrass herself by mispronouncing Oliver's name. "I call him Naru since it's easier to say."

The two friends exchanged a look of pure disbelief. Oliver Davis actually allowed a girl to call him with a _pet-name_ that sounded awfully similar to his _real_ nickname? Yasuhara grinned and mused, " _Very interesting_. I like the name. I should start calling him that now, too."

"Hah, you shouldn't," Gene warned darkly, "he'll make sure to punish you and make you run around for ten hours. You know he will."

"Ah... you're probably right."

Gene patted him on the shoulder and half-turned to leave. "Well then, see you around, Taniyama-san. Stop by the courts once in a while."

Mai nodded and promised she would do so later today.

"Great, I'll see you then! And I'm looking forward to next Saturday." He was about to walk away when Yasuhara suddenly yanked him back forcefully. " _ **The hell**_ \- ow!" he cried out half in English when his chest collided rather roughly against Yasuhara's shoulders.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, wait. What'd you just say? You guys have a date?" Yasuhara exclaimed out loud. He knew Gene was flirtatious, but this just seemed so out of the blue. And besides, hearing about how Oliver's been acting around this girl, he would have thought there was something going on between _them_. He was mildly confused, to say the least.

Mai noted how some of her classmates, who were still loitering around the classroom, suddenly paused at Yasuhara's sudden outburst. Mai wanted to melt into a puddle that instant.

"I guess, but well, not exactly," Gene responded so casually that Mai couldn't help but feel a hint of disappointment. Then she rebuked herself. She _knew_ that already; it wasn't supposed to be a _date_ -date!

Gene elaborated, "She's the one who told Noll off."

"Hey wait, I didn't ' _tell him off_ '," she countered. "A-anyway, as Davis-san says, it's not exactly a date," she said a little louder, hoping her eavesdropping classmates would take the hint that there was nothing to gossip about here.

"Well the bottom line is Noll listened and it had something to do with Taniyama-san, so I'm taking her out as a thanks. Did you want to tag along, Yasu? We planned on going out to lunch next Saturday; location: to be determined. You're going to have to pay your own, though."

' _Oh, that's what that was about?'_ Yasuhara thought to himself, and politely declined. "Unfortunately my weekends will be locked in for the next 3 weeks due to that project with Takako-san and the others. You go on and enjoy yourselves. And Taniyama-san, I suggest you take full advantage of the fact that this guy will be paying for your lunch. He can be quite the cheapskate."

Gene playfully elbowed him on the side. "What the hell are you talking about, Yasu? Taniyama-san, ignore this oaf. I'll take you anywhere you want to go, so think about it until then, okay?"

Mai laughed at their antics and nodded. "Okay!"

-000-

She was on cleaning duty this week. After her group finished with their chores, she found herself walking around the empty hallways absentmindedly. She was still stressing out over her teacher's announcement that afternoon: their final project. They were expected to write a twenty to twenty-five page report on any topic, so long as it was something that interested them, and was something they didn't know much about to begin with. It was, supposedly, an exercise on research. She wasn't sure if she liked how vague it was. There were _many_ things she didn't know much about! There were too many possibilities! How could she narrow it down?

She turned a corner. She still had months to complete it, but she figured she should attempt to get started on it right away, especially since she was already getting stuck at the very beginning.

When she looked up and was surprised to see _him_ standing with his back leaning against the wall, just a couple steps in front of her. He had his arms crossed upon his chest, head slightly bent down, and his eyes closed.

He hadn't noticed her presence yet. And she wasn't sure which of them it was.

"Hello?" she ventured out neutrally. With barely any movement, his eyes snapped open and turned to her, sharp, piercing, and very blue. "Ah, Naru! You're here! But Davis-san said you were going to be gone for the day."

It seemed to her as if he thought it too troublesome to speak, but he answered her anyway with his deep, silky voice, "I made it back after lunch. There's no point in unnecessarily skipping classes." He paused for a moment before asking, "Don't tell me you got stuck in remedial classes again."

She scowled at his assumption and spat, "No! I was on cleaning duty! And for your information I haven't failed any tests lately."

"Is it because you haven't _had_ any tests?"

Mai spluttered. "Well we've had some pop quizzes and I passed them! But that's beside the point! Geez." She joined him, leaning against the wall just like he was. "So? What exactly are you doing?"

"Waiting for someone."

"Oh." Mai looked across from her and realized they were right outside the teacher's lounge. "I see. And how was the doctor's visit? Good news? Bad news?"

He sighed. "It's not as bad as everyone thinks it is. It's just severely inflamed. A couple of painkillers and some rest is all I need, and for me to not do too much repetitive motions with this arm for a while." Oliver mentally blanched upon remembering Gene and Yasuhara's _extremely_ lewd joke earlier (complete with them doing a demonstration of said repetitive up and down stroking motions) when he told them the same thing. He saw Mai smirk, and for a second he wanted to ask pointedly what in the world she was laughing at, wondering whether she was also thinking of the same crude joke, but he ended up just rolling his eyes and ignoring her. He wasn't sure he wanted to know if such things crossed her mind.

"Well that's good to hear," she finally said. Suddenly she exclaimed, "Oh! Naru, I have this paper I need to write for class and I _just_ decided on my topic. Tennis! I don't know much about it and it's interesting to me, so I'd like to do research on it. Do you think it'd be okay if I hung around you guys after school and sit in during your practice so I can observe for my research? Kashima-san, Bou-san, Davis-san, and you would be excellent source materials."

Naru raised his brow and muttered, "As long as you don't get in the way."

"Yay, thanks! Hey, are you headed to the courts after this?"

He grunted in response.

"Well I'm headed there too. Should I wait for you so we can walk there together?"

Oliver stared at her blankly for a second before replying, "Do what you want."

They were interrupted when the door to the teacher's lounge opened. A girl stepped out, carrying a huge stack of books that looked particularly heavy. The stack was high enough that it blocked her face, so she had to tilt her head sideways to see in front of her.

"Oliver-kun?" she asked in a quiet, low tone.

Upon seeing her features, Mai couldn't help but think how much she looked like a beautiful, graceful, porcelain doll.

Mai peeled herself off from the wall and rushed up to her. "Uhm, hello there, I'm Taniyama Mai. Nice to meet you," she greeted.

The raven-haired girl frowned a bit and looked at her with confusion, but said nothing to her in reply.

'Eh _?'_ Mai thought. Behind her, Oliver stood up and began walking away. "Hey, wait, Naru! Aren't you going to help her carry these? They look heavy."

He paused in his steps and turned back to look at her lazily. "Mai, I'm hurt," he replied in a deadpan.

"Jerk," she muttered before turning back toward the girl. To her surprise, the porcelain doll girl was now looking at her coldly. "U-uhm... I can help you carry them?"

The girl huffed and suddenly thrust more than half of her load onto Mai's arms, causing her to sag a bit from the unexpected weight.

"Ooh, wow, these are quite heavy. Where do we need to bring this?"

"Upstairs."

"Oh." Mai groaned as she thought of having to walk up the flight of stairs with these in her arms. "I didn't catch your name?" she tried once again.

"Hara Masako."

The coldness in her voice indicated very clearly to Mai that Hara wanted nothing to do with her after this.

'Why _does her terrible attitude remind me of someone?'_ she thought sarcastically as he watched him walking several steps in front of them.

However to her surprise, Naru paused in his steps and let the two of them catch up. Then, unexpectedly and wordlessly, he took more than half of Mai's load and some more off from Hara's, and proceeded to walk up the flight of stairs.

Mai scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I really don't get you sometimes," she muttered at him.

As a reply, he just ignored her.


	11. First Lesson

**Chapter 11**

"Still an hour early..." he mumbled to himself as he slid the phone back into his pocket. The walk-signal flashed and he took a tentative step forward, glancing left and right twice, before making his way across the intersection. After stepping onto the curb and looking up, a familiar figure caught his eye, but before he could reach a hand up to remove the headphones from his ears, her bewildered voice carried through the air.

"Eh? Kashima!"

"Taniyama," he managed to reply evenly, though he was just as much surprised as she was, and proceeded to tug gently on the wires to pop the headphones out of his ears.

He wasn't sure when it began, or even who started it, but somehow they had gone past referring to each other with polite honorifics and had settled into last-name basis only. Not that he was complaining, really; he found it more comfortable that way anyway.

He noticed the quizzical look she was giving him and somehow understood the unvoiced question she was meaning to ask, so he gave her the tiniest, almost imperceptible nod and slowed down his pace.

Glad that her request was accepted, Mai ran up to join him on his walk and fell into the rhythm of his easy, but long strides. "You're an hour early," she said, "We're not supposed to meet until 11."

"I intended to be early. You?"

"Uhm, yes. Because Michiru and Keiko always complain about me being late so now every time we go out I always make sure to arrive a bit early. Though I miscalculated this time. An hour is a bit much," Mai answered sheepishly. "So are you going to tell me why you're early?"

Kei directed her attention to the tennis bag on his shoulder, answering in his usual languid tone, "I wanted to hit against the wall before we all met up."

"Oh, right. Uhm, what do you mean hit against a wall?"

Kashima pointed to the tennis courts they were fast approaching and slipped into his tennis-guru mode he often found himself in whenever he was around the curious brunette. "I figured since it was just across the park from the café, I might as well get some practice done. When we have no one to play with," he explained, referring to tennis players in general, "we often just hit against the wall to practice groundstrokes or head to the courts to practice serves." He cast her a sidelong glance and asked offhandedly, "By the way, have you been able to speak with anyone from the girls' tennis team yet?"

She flushed and answered in the negative.

"Why? I thought you wanted to join the team? Haven't you been coming by to watch them lately? What have you been doing all this time, then?"

"Ah… I've just been… watching them." Sensing Kashima's confused stare, Mai quickly added, "They're really good, you know. I just don't think I can hack it. I don't even know how to play."

"You don't have to know how to play. They'll take their time to teach you all the basics, if needed."

She shook her head indignantly. "No! I should learn how to play a bit on my own first! I can't just show up knowing nothing and expect them to spoon feed me all the information!"

Kashima thought it was a ridiculous notion, but thought against saying something since he understood the feeling of not wanting to look like a complete idiot. A better part of him also felt a sense of admiration for the girl. She definitely had pride, coupled with an endearing trait of never wanting to inconvenience others for her own sake. Instead, he shrugged and muttered, "Suit yourself."

When they arrived at the courts, Kei muttered out a mildly amused, "Huh."

Both the courts were still empty.

"Usually people would be playing already," he said more to himself, then he turned to her and pointed at the three sided wall standing right beside the court. "That's the wall. You just try to hit against it as long as you can, making sure the ball lands above the painted 'net' line. It's a bit harder than it sounds like because you'll need to keep a steady pace and power, otherwise if you hit too hard the ball will bounce back too fast and put you off-balance. It's a good practice, but since the park is pretty empty right now, would you like to go inside the courts and hit against me instead? I have an extra racket with me."

Mai's eyes widened. "Really? Oh, but you know I don't really know how to play…" she tried to reason, but Kashima had already moved toward the courts and stepped inside, holding the gated fence open for her and looking at her expectantly.

Despite her hesitation, Mai found herself stepping into the courts after him. She turned back to him again with a worried expression and was about to say something else, but Kashima simply shut the gate behind him and strode off towards the bench, not bothering to give her a chance to back out.

"It's alright, we won't play a game. We'll just hit the balls so you get a feel for it. We might as well take advantage of the situation—usually the courts would be busy at this time."

"But I really haven't held a racket before at all, you know," Mai said dubiously. "I imagine it won't be very fun for you and I wouldn't want to impose on your practice time."

Kashima sighed in mild annoyance and plopped his tennis bag down. He opened the zipper and took out an already opened can of tennis balls and deposited the contents into his pockets, then grabbed both his rackets and handed one of them to his reluctant companion. "I already said it's alright. You actually really want to hit, right? Just make sure to not drop my racket or scratch it."

Having nothing to say against his correct assumption, Mai tentatively reached for the racket and held it in her hand, noticing how the handle was beveled in an octagonal shape. She hadn't expected that. She also noticed it was exactly the same racket he was currently holding and figured it must be his back-up spare in case the strings snapped (she wondered if that happened often) or if it broke somehow.

She gripped it tight and swung her arms around, trying to get a feel for its weight and thought about how it wasn't as heavy as she thought it would be, though she was sure holding on to it for a long time and swinging it around would eventually fatigue her.

She looked up at him. "Am I holding it right?"

Kashima waved dismissively and jogged over to one side of the net, motioning for her to situate herself on the opposite side.

As soon as she did so, he responded, "Don't worry about any of the technicalities for now. Just hold it how you want to hold it and try to return the balls to me. We're just going to see how well your coordination is." He pulled out a ball and looked at her. "You ready?"

Grasping the racket tighter, she nodded.

The ball flew over the net in a slow arc. Mai kept her eyes trained on the ball but eventually let her gaze pry away and fall into the direction where she wanted to aim at in the last minute, so she ended up swinging blindly. She completely missed and froze as the ball continued on its unhindered trajectory and rolled away behind her.

"Ah crap!" she cried out in embarrassment.

"It's alright, just keep your eyes on the ball at all times even as you hit it with your racket. Let's try again." He took a second ball out of his pockets and fed her another shot.

This time, Mai's field of view narrowed and all that existed was the ball. She followed its movement as it made a slow arc over the net, hit the floor, and bounced back up at her. She swung her arms but unlike before, kept her eyes locked on the ball even as it made contact with the face of the racket, exactly as she was instructed.

Instead of it going straight toward the other side of the court, however, it shot high up in the air, before landing on the other side of the court close to the net. Kashima was immediately there but instead of hitting the ball, he simply grabbed it with his hands.

"Good."

Mai pouted. "But it didn't even go where I wanted it to. It went up."

"You managed to get it over, that was better than missing. Try again and this time try turning the racket face slanted a bit more downward so you're not scooping the ball up when you hit it."

She sighed but refocused her mind. This time, again by following Kashima's advice precisely, Mai was at least able to direct it forward across the net, though her aim could still definitely use some work. She - and uncharacteristically, even he - broke into a grin.

"I always figured you were a quick learner," he said with a genuine look of satisfaction. "Let's try again, then later we can move back to the baseline and rally for a bit."

They passed forty-five minutes in this manner, with Mai demonstrating marked improvement from when she began, though she was still having a lot of difficulties once they moved away from the net and started rallying from the baseline. She was also already feeling fatigued and winded from the small exercise, and was struggling out of breath when she handed the racket back to the blonde after finishing their impromptu training.

"Tired already?" Kei asked in mild amusement.

"Yes... As you can tell, I don't work out a lot."

"Hm. Well surprisingly you have good form, I suppose that's due to you watching everyone so closely all this time, so once you go over techniques I don't think you'll have much trouble. Your stamina is terrible, though. I didn't even make you run around that much, did I?"

Mai groaned. "Yeah, be quiet. There's no way I can join the girls' team like this; it's embarrassing. Look at you though, you haven't even broken a sweat!"

"Running is part of my routine so this is nothing. If you're serious about playing, you should start your endurance training."

Kei stuffed the rackets and the balls back into his bag and zipped it up. He hefted it up on his shoulder and nudged his head toward the cafe. Mai obediently followed suit right after him, though she was still furiously fanning herself in an effort to cool down.

"Would you like to play again later today?"

Mai's eyes lit up, but she quickly dampened her enthusiasm. "It was really fun, but I feel like I was making you chase the ball around too much because I couldn't control where I want it to go," she mumbled. "Maybe not yet. Maybe I'll practice hitting against the wall first so I can be consistent. Of course I'll have to set aside some savings to buy myself a racket and some balls first, though..."

Kei opened his mouth to assure her he didn't mind, but one look at her determined features made him hold back. If she wanted to try and pursue her goal on her own first, he would respect it.

"If you say so," was all he managed to say.

They exited through the gated fence, but before they could walk away completely, Mai suddenly tugged at Kashima's shirt from behind and asked shyly, "Wait, Kashima. Could you show me how you would practice against the wall first?"

The corner of Kashima's lips upturned. "Sure."

-000-

Not too long afterward, Keiko and Michiru arrived to meet them at the cafe. They ordered their lunch and as soon as they were sated, delved right into their task. They worked diligently for two whole hours, but eventually group felt they had to relocate somewhere else to avoid being detrimental to the cafe's business, so Michiru had suggested they stay at her house. Once there, the quartet again wasted no time in getting back down to business.

Their study session went longer than expected, particularly because both Michiru and Mai proved to be slow at grasping the mathematical concepts and needed to be babied through a lot of the practice problems before they finally got the hang of it. Thankfully, Keiko was a great help at communicating with the other two girls and could water down Kashima's detailed explanations to words they could better understand.

After their fifth hour of studying, both Michiru and Mai were showing signs of fatigue, so Keiko suggested for them to take a short snack break. At this, Michiru all too eagerly jumped up from her seat and ran into the kitchen, with the rest of them following suit, and began rummaging through her cabinets and fridge before suddenly exclaiming, "Ah! Mom said she was going to go shopping later today! I don't have any snacks here..."

Mai sighed and plopped down on the dining table. "Man, we were already out earlier! We could have stopped by the store on the way here!"

"My bad. I forgot I'm out of food, k? Unless you want eggs? I have a lot of those."

"That's not a good snack!"

Keiko, ever the voice of reason, interjected, "I can go out and buy some snacks for us. The store isn't that far. How about you guys continue reviewing until I get back?"

"What? No, that's too much of a hassle for you, Keiko. I should be the one to go buy it..."

"It's okay, Michiru, I don't mind at all. I already finished my work so you and Mai should continue studying. You still have a lot of work to do."

Both Michiru and Mai looked unconvinced and voiced out their concern against having their friend go unaccompanied, so to ease their apprehension Kashima blurted out, "I'll go with Amane-san."

The two girls looked at each other before nodding in understanding, then Michiru ran off somewhere and came back holding her wallet. She handed Keiko some cash and told her to get whatever she wanted.

"Don't worry about the change. Use it all. Mai and I will make sure to get through a lot of the problem set! Thanks for doing this, Keiko, Kashima-kun. Sorry to make you do this."

Keiko shook her head and smiled. "No worries. We'll be back soon. Don't slack off, you two!"

Kashima simply made a short wave of his hand before following Keiko out the door.

Once she was sure they were gone, Michiru suddenly giggled and the two began their slow walk upstairs back to her room.

Mai looked at her friend in mild alarm and asked slowly, "Are... you okay?"

Michiru's eyes gleamed as she answered, "I think Keiko secretly likes Kashima-kun. This is great for her!"

"What! She does? She never told me!"

"No, she didn't tell me either, but it's one of those things you just _feel_ , you know? Let's bug her about it later. You guys are leaving me behind. She's got Kashima-kun to walk around with her, and you've got your Naru hanging out with you."

They entered the room and sat back down on their respective spots around the study table. Mai crinkled her nose and spat out, "What's Naru got to do with it? And don't say ' _your Naru_ '. There's _nothing_ between us, Michiru! Geez."

"Sure," the girl sarcastically drawled, but before Mai could retort, she already buried her face back into her book and got to work. Mai wasn't sure if that was her friend's genuine attempt at studying, or merely a ruse to prevent her from arguing back. Either way, Mai sighed and decided to also get back to studying.


	12. Group Lunch

**Chapter 12**

Kashima stood up from his seat, walked over to Mai, and placed a small, circular shaped rubber item on her desk.

"How's your practice been going?" He asked. All around them students were shuffling about after being dismissed for lunch.

Mai raised her brow in confusion and inspected the item. "Uhh, wait, what's this?"

"It's a dampener. It absorbs some of the vibration in the strings to eliminate that annoying sharp sound when you hit the ball. You can try it on the racket and see if you like it. If not, then don't use it."

"Cool! I'll try it on. You'll have to show me how to put it on though." Mai closed her notebook and put it in her bag before standing up. She beamed and cried proudly, "And practicing against the wall has been helpful! I think I'm getting better. It's only been almost a week since we played, but I think you'll see marked improvement."

"What about endurance training?"

"Uhm… not well- but!" She paused to wink at him. "Don't want to injure myself, you know?"

He half-scoffed, half-chuckled.

"Thanks again for showing me how to practice and also for letting me borrow your racket and now the dampener. Is it really okay?"

Kashima put his hands in his pockets and cocked his head to the side. "Didn't I say it's not that big of a deal? I've got plenty of those dampeners and I told you that was my beginner racket; I don't use that anymore. It's decent enough so you don't have to waste your money getting yourself one. Save your money for when you decide you want to upgrade to the 'real' deal. Those won't be cheap."

She wanted again to thank him for being so generous but figured he probably was getting uncomfortable with all her constant acclamation and prudently swtched the topic. "Alright. Well today we're going to the cafeteria to buy our lunch. Want to come with?"

Kashima shrugged. "I was almost late today so I only brought a protein bar. Cafeteria lunch sound loads better."

The two stepped out into the hallway and waited for Keiko and Michiru to finish up tidying their desks, and as soon as they did, the four of them made their way to the cafeteria, making small talk and asking each other how they felt they performed on their recent exam. Much to Keiko and Kashima's relief, both Mai and Michiru felt confident. After they grabbed their food, they scanned the area for a free table when a boy almost collided against them.

"Oops, my apologies. Ah hey, Kashima-kun! I don't see you around here often. Taniyama-san, you're here, too! Sorry I made you spill a bit."

"Yasuhara-senpai?" Kei asked in surprise. "And it's alright, it only spilled a little."

Behind Yasuhara, Kei heard another voice call out to him. "Oh, Kashima! Wanna join us?"

Yasuhara turned his body aside and let Kashima get a full view of Gene, who was currently calling them over and was gleefully waving at their direction. Yasuhara didn't fail to notice the uncertain glance Kashima gave his lady companions so he added, "Taniyama-san and her friends can also come with and join us, of course! The cafeteria is kind of busy today so there's not a lot of free tables available."

The three ladies looked at each other and shrugged in acceptance. Once they arrived at the table, Gene smiled at them. "Hello, Taniyama-san!"

"Good afternoon, Davis-san!" Mai flashed him a huge smile and then noticed that his brooding twin was also sitting at the table with them, looking positively absorbed in his book. He only spared her a quick glance, locking their eyes together for a brief moment, before resuming on ignoring the entire party. She silently huffed to herself but said nothing.

Not noticing the silent exchange that went on between his brother and the brunette, Gene addressed the other two girls beside her and greeted, "Hello again! We met briefly before but both of you ran away when Taniyama-san got into a slight rage."

Mai blushed in shame at remembering the event and laughed nervously. "Ah, that's right... That did happen..."

"Haha! Yes, we were uncomfortable with the situation so we let you guys settle it between yourselves! I'm Kinoshita Michiru, by the way!"

"And I'm Amane Keiko. Pleased to meet you."

Gene bowed back and replied, "I'm Eugene Davis."

Beside him, Yasuhara also gave a bow and introduced himself. "This is the first time I'm meeting you both. I'm Yasuhara Osamu."

The rest of the group turned their attention to Oliver, but he still went on ignoring them. When it became slightly awkward, Gene cleared his throat and did his introduction for him. "That's my brother, Oliver Davis."

The boy temporarily pried his eye away from the book but did not bother to meet anyone's eye as he gave his own version of a polite bow, which was actually nothing more than a slight nod of acknowledgement. Eugene bristled at his brother's lack of manners and was about to apologize on his behalf, but it turned out both Michiru and Keiko were already aware of his brother's rotten personality and simply bowed back as if everything was normal. Gene figured that Mai must have warned her friends about him before and was glad to be spared the trouble of having to come up with some ridiculous excuse. He gestured for the newcomers to sit down at the table. Beside him sat Mai, followed by Michiru and Keiko. Across from them sat Oliver, Yasuhara, and Kashima.

"How's your tennis research going along? Will you be coming by the courts again later today to observe?" Gene ventured to the brunette.

"Yep! And I'll be staying out of everyone's way," she emphasized, "I'm learning lots of information just watching you guys." Across from her, Naru made a small noise to clear his throat and Mai narrowed her eyes at him. Was he about to argue that point again? She waited for a second but Naru just continued on ignoring her.

"It's already Friday. Anybody have any good plans over the weekend?" Yasuhara offered conversationally as he dug into his food.

Michiru gulped her food down before answering, "We actually have practice tomorrow."

"Oh you guys are in a team? What sport do you guys play?" Gene asked.

"Volleyball! We're not one of the regulars yet, though."

"Awesome! And I'm sure that will come in time! Getting spots as a first year is tough, trust me, we know," Gene replied. "We watched one of your matches just a couple of weeks ago and it was intense! You guys are good! I only personally know a couple of people on your team... Like Kasai-san. She's your ace, right?"

Keiko nodded. "Is she in the same class as you guys?"

Yasuhara replied, "Yeah. We're all in the same class. Hey, maybe we should also do Saturday practice for the entire team. We used to always go out and play on our own anyway and I'm sure most of the others also hit on the weekends. Should we? What do you think, Boss?" All attention shifted to the silent captain.

"Over-training could be detrimental," he answered tonelessly as he flipped a page of his book.

"Wow. I never thought I'd hear you say that, of all people."

Gene snorted. "No, he wouldn't. He's just plagiarizing. He actually tried to ask Coach if we can do that but Coach refused due to that reason. Maybe Coach just doesn't want to see our faces six days out of the week. Especially yours, Yasu."

"Impossible. I'm not too bad in the looks department, am I?" he turned to the ladies and winked playfully, making them laugh and shake their head. "See? What does Kashima-kun think? I'm quite handsome, right?"

Mai giggled and commented, "I'm starting to think you're the one I should be calling Naru, Yasuhara-san!" Everyone around the table currently paying attention to the conversation seemed to understand the reference and laughed along.

Kashima then decided to reply to his senpai and shrugged, solemnly stating, "I'm a terrible appraiser of beauty, Yasuhara-senpai," before slurping the noodles of his ramen. "But if you were to ask me, I'd ditch the old-man glasses and opt for something more fashionable with black rims." He adjusted his own pair of glasses to emphasize his point.

Everyone, with the exception of Oliver, exchanged surprised glances at his deadpan delivery of a teasing joke before exploding in another fit of laughter.

Lunch time with the twins and Yasuhara proved to be very interesting. There were no shortage of jokes and laughter among them, especially with Yasuhara and Eugene's constant friendly banter that Michiru and Mai, and occasionally even Kashima, would join in. Keiko, as always, kept a polite but friendly distance from the teasing, and of course the ever brooding Oliver was content on blocking out the merry-making in front of him, though from time to time, Mai found herself catching his eyes when he'd deign to take a break from his reading and survey his surroundings.

It bothered her somewhat that he would act this way around friends and wondered how much patience both the older Davis and Yasuhara had in tolerating this behavior, but she sighed and found that maybe it wasn't so surprising after all. It was so like him. In fact, it was weirder to even imagine him socializing. Moreover, something in her heart told her that the fact he continued to stay by their side was proof enough he didn't find their company as detestable as his actions made it seem; he was just probably very awkward at displaying any emotions.

Mai began to wonder. What was Naru's true personality? Was it the stoic, no-nonsense boy sitting across from her at that moment, or the sly, cheeky, narcissistic bastard she would meet at the school's rooftop? Why was it that sometimes he seemed to revel in riling her up, and at other times he was content to ignore her very existence? Whenever they would pass each other in the school grounds, all he ever did was lock his eyes against hers for just a few seconds longer than was necessary. He gave no other sign of recognition and unless someone knew their history, one wouldn't even know they knew each other. Was this how he treated all his close acquaintances? Was Davis-san and Yasuhara-san also subject to Naru's moodiness like she was?

She had been busy contemplating Naru's behavior that she missed the teasing joke Yasuhara cracked at the boy's expense. Her attention quickly diverted to the conversation when she heard Eugene laugh and explain that his brother is always just morose like that.

"Noll is generally just polite enough to get through societal customs, but honestly after that he just goes back to ignoring you and forgetting you ever existed unless you were important enough, or he needs something from you. Interestingly, as a child Noll used to categorize people as teachers, pumpkins, or pumpkin-others. Cute, right?"

" _Gene_ ," came Naru's warning voice, telling him to not speak of it any further.

Thankfully for him, Gene listened and dropped the subject, but unfortunately he began to pick up another silly anecdote. "Anyway, believe it or not, Noll can be quite the charmer if necessity calls for it!"

"Really?" Mai couldn't help asking.

"Oh yeah. And people say I'm the lady killer," he exclaimed. "Last summer when we went back to England for a short vacation, we heard from our old club mates that there was going to be a tennis match between two top seeds for some exclusive event or something, but tickets to get in had been sold out. One of the players was Noll's favorite so he was quite adamant on wanting to see the match, so we somehow managed to get the lady in charge of the entry to let us through."

"How?" the rest asked in unison.

Gene smiled sheepishly. "By taking her out on a date."

"The both of you did?" Mai asked.

"Well we asked for two tickets, so…"

"And you agreed?"

"Noll did. I didn't really have any other choice. And he was laying it on thick so I thought he really was into that stuff, she was pretty cute after all. I didn't question it."

Noll sighed and flipped another page with annoyance. "She initially was going to still have us pay for half the price. How do you think we would have gotten the money to pay for two tickets on such short notice without Martin and Luella knowing we're doing something illegal?"

Gene laughed. "Well yeah, eventually I realized what you were doing. So like I said, you can turn your charm on and off when necessity calls for it. The lady was so charmed by him she let us in for free. She's still emailing me now, asking when we're going back to visit England again."

"I told you not to give her a real email address."

"I felt bad, okay! She seemed genuinely smitten, thanks to you."

Mai laughed. Naru was really so strange. She reached for her half empty cup of water and gulped its contents down and as soon as she placed it back on the table, Eugene stood up beside her and excused himself for a minute. She turned her attention back to the group and joked, "It's creepy to think Naru could be charming. I shudder to even imagine him flirting."

For the first time since the group sat down together, Oliver finally closed his book and addressed Mai directly with a smug tone, "Not with you, I hope."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Of course not! That's ridiculous. All I'm saying is that I'd probably die of a heart attack because of how scary it would be to see you act all sweet with someone."

"I'm not in the habit of making a show of my emotions, so unless my 'sweet' attentions were directed toward you, rest assured you would never witness it, Mai."

"Agh," she cried in annoyance, "there you go again being all sarcastic!"

"You were the one who -" but before he could finish, Gene had come back and pressed a cold can of tea against the back of Mai's neck, causing her to yelp in surprise.

Oliver dropped his retort and cleared his throat, silently glad for the disruption. He had been careless and almost let himself get dragged into another ridiculous argument with the idiot brunette.

"Uwa! That was cold!" Mai rubbed her neck and turned her attention back to Naru, thinking she'd heard him start to say something, but shrugged when she saw him go back to reading his book.

Gene chuckled. "Sorry, sorry," he said, handing the can to her before motioning the girl behind him to step forward and join them at the table. "I ran into her on the way back here. This is Masako-chan, everyone. She's the tennis team's manager. Masako-chan, that over there is Amane-san and Kinoshita-san from the girls' volleyball team." Masako and the two girls exchanged polite bows. "And this is Taniyama-san."

"Ah, I've already met Hara-san a few days ago," Mai said cheerfully. "Good afternoon, Hara-san!"

The girl made a stiff bow in reply before taking the seat beside Oliver and smiling at him. "Good afternoon, Oliver-kun."

"Hara-san," he replied evenly, though Mai could have sworn she saw him tense up a little at her proximity.

"Uhm, what's this for, Davis-san?" Mai asked the twin beside her while holding the can up.

"Cold tea. You were just drinking plain old water earlier and I thought you'd have wanted some cold tea so I bought you one."

Mai blushed at the attention. "Oh... thanks."

Yasuhara smirked and clicked his tongue. "Now, now, Eugene-san, control yourself with the flirting. Aren't you already taking Taniyama-san out for a date tomorrow?"

Michiru and Keiko's eyes bulged and they cried out in unison, "What!"

Mai immediately sunk into her chair in embarrassment and helplessly squeaked out, "It's not a date!"

Kashima, who had been quiet all along and only occasionally participated in the discussion, contented himself with simply watching everyone's reactions. Amane-san was trying to mute her own excitement at the situation, Kinoshita-san looked positively thrilled (and he didn't doubt Taniyama would be mercilessly picked on later), Yasuhara-senpai seemed smug, Hara-san looked bored, the Captain didn't even seem to be paying them any attention, and Gene-senpai was grinning sheepishly. He took another slurp of his ramen.

"It really isn't, Yasu," Gene said. "Didn't I already say it's just to thank her for speaking some sense into Noll? Oh, I know! What if we invite the rest of the team to come along with us? Kashima, you free tomorrow?"

The boy started. "Yes, I suppose..."

"Good! I'll tell the rest of the team later during practice. I'm sure Takigawa-san and Kiriya would be down. It'd be easy to get Lin to tag along, too. If we call it a team-bonding activity, I bet mostly everyone would go. Noll you'll have to come with, of course. This will be a party for you and Taniyama-san, after all."

The boy sighed and stood up from his seat. "I'm not interested," he said, before politely bowing down in the slightest to excuse himself and walked away.

The group watched him retreat in silence, but Gene kept on as if nothing happened. He turned his attention to Masako and asked, "What about you, Masako-chan? You'll also come, right?"

Masako averted her eyes and hesitated. "I..."

"Don't worry, Noll will come. Promise."

She blinked and flushed, then spluttered out, "Th-there's no need to bring Oliver-kun into it! I'll go regardless, if it is a team activity."

Gene simply smiled and nodded good-naturedly, "Okay! The more the merrier! It's too bad Yasu, Amane-san, and Kinoshita-san won't be able to go though, since you guys are already busy. Ah, well actually who cares about Yasu."

"Hey!"

The group laughed.

-000-

The entire team was currently sitting cross-legged down in the courts, listening in rapt attention to their Captain before them, though he was a peer to most (and for two, their junior). Despite the close proximity in their ages, Oliver's voice was unmistakably authoritative and confident as he gave each player individualized pointers and suggestions for improvement.

"We'll be working serve and volley today." He glanced backward and as he expected, caught the brunette behind him leaning over to whisper a question in John's ears since he happened to be the nearest person this time around. He narrowed his eyes.

"I'll explain just for Mai's sake," at this Mai cried out in embarrassment and straightened up, bringing her notepad and pencil close to her chest as he resumed, "Serve and volley is an aggressive tactic meant to intimidate and put pressure on your opponent. The minute your serve goes in, you are to run up to the net and try to finish up the next point with a finishing volley. If anything, it would at least disturb the tempo of the game, particularly if your enemy seems to be getting in the groove. Takigawa-san, Lin, grab a ball and do a demonstration."

The two best players stood up and did as they were told, walking toward Mai to reach behind her for the basket of balls. They heard her mutter under her breath, "You could say 'please' once in a while, your Highness." Takigawa grinned and turned to Lin to find his usually stoic friend also sporting a much subtler smile.

On the court, Takigawa went through his service motion and served, then sprinted up to the net to volley Lin's return. However Lin was too fast of a player and was able to chase the ball and barely managed to return it with a high lob. Takigawa re-positioned himself and targeted the ball in the air, before promptly shooting it back with a winning smash. The team clapped at the well-played rally.

"As you just witnessed, being up close to the net has its advantages. You are able to speed up the tempo of the rally and can hit steeper angles to pull your opponents out. Even though Takigawa-san was unable to finish up the point with that volley, he placed it well enough that Lin was put off balance and had to resort to lobbing it back. With him already up at the net, Takigawa-san was easily able to hit a smash." He paused for a second to consider before adding haughtily, "Just for Mai's sake, a smash -"

"- I know what a smash is! Thanks!" the girl cried through gritted teeth. "You don't have to be so obnoxious about everything!"

"I fail to see how helping you understand the terms is being 'obnoxious.'"

"You've been pointedly dragging attention to it every time these past few days! Sorry if I'm not as knowledgeable as you!"

Oliver rolled his eyes and turned his back on her. "Are you really in any position to be complaining? I told you that you could spend your time here as long as you didn't get in anyone's way. Whenever you pull one of the members aside to ask your questions you're distracting the team, so it's best I just explain everything for everyone to hear."

Mai huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine!" Then in a quieter voice she mumbled, "I hate it when you make sense. Stupid jerk."

The rest of the team looked at each other with amused grins. Practice had been so much more lively and fun with Taniyama Mai around. Honestly their constant banter was itself distracting enough, but no one was complaining since it was such a rare sight to see their normally composed and sullen Captain acting more… spirited.

Mai stood up. "Well I'll just go find a corner then and get out of everyone's way since I'm being such a distraction! Hmph!"

Takigawa watched her stomp away with a smile. "Aww, Jou-chan's so cute getting all riled up. But you should really ease up on teasing the poor girl, Davis. She's just eager to learn. I think her enthusiasm is very endearing."

Oliver ignored his remark and proceeded to bark his orders, separating the team across all four court to practice their serve and volley, telling them to play out the entire point.

"Keep track of your scores. I've been told promising a reward for excellence is a powerful motivator. As such, the top player in each court will run only four laps around the track, while the rest of the losers will run ten."

The team groaned. Someone muttered this was more like motivation using fear and the reward wasn't even worth much more, but regardless it was enough to get them all to take the exercise seriously.

Before Takigawa could walk away, Oliver challenged, "Takigawa-san, I suggest you focus on the exercise and not worry over 'cute' girls and their feelings. You're on the same court as Lin, Gene, and Yasuhara-san, so I don't imagine you can afford to slack off."

Takigawa groaned louder.

-000-

Mai watched the players closely, particularly their their feet positioning during their service motions. Some of them preferred to keep one foot in front of the other, while some preferred the closed-off stance of putting the two feet together, like Oliver did. She didn't see any particular advantages to it so she just chalked it up to preference and their own sense of balance. She made a note on her notebook.

It was Sakauchi's turn to do the serve and volley drill next, going against Kashima on the returning side. As soon as he hit the serve, he scrambled up to the net to wait for his opponent's response. Kashima didn't seem to have much difficulty in hitting the ball back, but seeing Sakauchi take up the middle of the court limited his options. He decided to go for Sakauchi's left side, thinking his best option was to go for the backhand.

"Ah, but Sakauchi-san is- " Mai's next words tumbled out sadly when Sakauchi easily sliced the ball in a winner. "-A lefty…"

Kashima cursed. "I forgot again. Lefties are troublesome."

Sakauchi laughed and gave him a thumbs up. "I guess we don't play together enough, Kashima. You always fall for it."

"Tsche."

Mai giggled and wrote on her notebook, "Kashima is sometimes a ditz when it comes to remembering opponents' strengths and weaknesses." Above it was a bullet point about John's mastery of something called a 'Western grip' that apparently gave his shots an insane slice. She'll have to remember to ask Kashima what that meant later.

Off to the margins, she had scrawled, "Naru is a mean tyrant and slave driver." She grinned at the insult and underlined 'tyrant' several times.

"What could you possibly be writing in that notebook to make you grin like an idiot? If you're slacking off on your research, do it somewhere else and get off the courts."

Mai flushed and raised her eyes to glare at the intruder. "I am working! Stop breathing down my neck. It's not like you're my boss, or anything!"

Naru raised his brow. "If I ever find myself in a position of power, I doubt I'd ever hire someone as pig-headed as you."

"Why you! Ugh!" She buried herself into her notebook and tried to ignore his presence, deciding to take a page from his ' _Ways To Get On Someone's Nerve_ ' instruction manual. She had already moved off to the side of the court! What was he doing following her around? He was now standing in directly in front of her, blocking her view. She glared daggers at the back of his head, willing to drill a hole into it and wishing she had laser vision.

Suddenly, Kiriya screamed out in alarm, "Heads up, both of you! Mai-chan!"

Mai quickly looked up and saw a blur of something small and fast heading straight toward her. Before she registered the fact that she should quickly move out of the way, Oliver had already reached out his racket and hit the ball away, redirecting it back toward the courts. She blinked several times before registering Kiriya's concerned cries.

"Shit, I'm sorry guys! That was close. Mai-chan, you okay?"

"We're fine, go back to rallying. No one was hurt," came Naru's curt reply.

Kiriya gave Mai another glance so she smiled at him reassuringly and repeated, "Not hurt! I'm alright!" which eventually got the boy to nod and return to his drill.

Mai bit her lip and waited. Sure enough, Naru's quiet rebuke came immediately after.

"This is why you have to always pay attention to your surrounding when you're inside the court. Everyone on the team is a hard-hitter; that ball could have easily given you a concussion if it hit you in the head."

"...Sorry, I'll pay attention next time."

There was a silence between them for several seconds. Then, unable to hold back a giant smile forming on her face, she called out, "Ne, Naru?"

The boy frowned and turned to her with a raised brow. "What."

"And here I was thinking you came over just to block my view of the game, but really you decided to stand in front of me to make sure I don't get hit, right?"

Naru scowled. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

"Then why'd you come over? And made sure to bring your racket with you? And why'd you stand in front of me?"

He scoffed in disgust and stalked back toward the benches, trying in vain to put some distance between him and the annoying brunette, but to his irritation, she scurried over toward him again and slumped down against the fence, directly behind him. She was using him as a shield again.

Their eyes met. She smiled; he rolled his eyes.


	13. Gene and Mai's Date: Part 1

**Chapter 13: Part 1**

" **Shit!** "

Oliver didn't bother glancing up from his book as heavy footsteps rapidly approached his location, to be followed soon after by Gene's head popping out from behind the doorway. Even without looking, Oliver knew his twin would be frowning at him.

Once again for good measure, Gene cried, " **Shit!** "

" **Watch your language, young man!** " Luella rebuked, not even bothering to turn around as she was currently engaged in scrubbing a particularly tough stain on her pan. She segued all too quickly back into her cheerful mood, " **Oh we saved you some pancakes, dear. They'll be a tad cold, but you can just reheat it in the microwave**."

Gene shook his head and gave his brother a fierce glare. " **No thanks, Luella, I can't breakfast anymore. I'm going to be late. Noll, get dressed!** "

" **Late for what?** "

" **Noll and I were supposed to go out with the guys today at ten! Geez, Noll, why didn't you wake me?! You've been up for a while, it seems. Why haven't you gotten ready yet?** " He growled in irritation when he met with no reply.

Luella finally turned around, glancing at the digital clock on the microwave as she did so and asked, " **Ten? Dear, it's already nine-twenty.** "

" **Yeah, I know! My alarm clock didn't go off. Damn it -** "

" **-Language,** " Luella reminded him again, but Gene was already running back upstairs. They heard him shuffling about to grab his clothes before hastily slamming the bathroom door shut behind him. Luella raised her brow in confusion and asked her other son, " **Noll, dear, are you supposed to be getting ready, too?** "

" **No.** "

Luella only shrugged and resumed scrubbing her dishes and pots, thinking that whatever was going on, Gene would most likely have it go his way anyway, despite Oliver giving him such a hard time. It almost always went Gene's way. 'Killjoy' Noll, as Gene loved to tease his brother, was really such a sweet, kind young man after all- a pushover whenever it came to his twin's demands. Sometimes she even felt bad for the poor kid, but Eugene really had his brother's best interest at heart. If left to his own devices, Noll would no doubt just lock himself up in the house all day, just reading books and forgoing all manners of social interactions.

Several quiet minutes in the kitchen passed by, the stillness broken when Gene skipped back down the stairs with a comb on one hand and a toothbrush in his mouth, gesticulating wildly toward his brother and mumbling incomprehensibly, " _ **Nor, cowon. Why you ot vresshet?!**_ "

" **I thought it should be obvious by now. I'm not getting dressed because I'm not going,** " Oliver replied with a scowl. " **Stop talking while you're brushing your teeth. You're getting stuff all over the floor.** "

Eugene grumbled and tried to retort, but Luella looked at him pointedly and at the small mess he's made. The boy sighed in defeat, wiped the white stains on the floor with his hands, then marched back upstairs to finish brushing his teeth. As soon as he was done, he bounded down the stairs again and resumed his confrontation with his stubborn brother.

" **Alright, Noll get your ass up! We have to get going soon! I was originally thinking of walking there, but... ah... Luella, do you think you can give us a ride to the park?** "

" **Sure, dear. Let me just get myself ready then.** " Luella finished up the dishes, wiped her hands on the kitchen towel, and stepped out to allow the brothers to sort the situation among themselves.

However to Eugene's annoyance, Oliver was stubbornly refusing to get up from his seat and instead turned another page on his book.

He turned to look at the clock in aggravation and warned, " **Noll, seriously. We have fifteen minutes.** " Without waiting for a reply, he stepped towards Oliver and yanked the book from his hands, closing it and setting it aside on top of the counter, far away from his brother's reach.

Oliver glared at him. " **I rejected your invitation yesterday and have just told you that I do not want to go.** "

" **Yes, but left to your own devices, you'd never want to go anywhere that doesn't involve tennis or reading. You're going**."

Oliver clenched his fist and slowly stood up from his seat, finally starting to lose his temper. " **And what gives you the right to decide what I should do?** "

Eugene switched to Japanese in consideration of his brother, knowing he wouldn't have wanted Luella to get a wind of his troubles.

"I just thought it'd be nice for all of us to participate in a team-building event. Look, the party is really more for the rest of the team than it is for you, Noll. All of them feel bad that you felt you had to shoulder all that burden by yourself. Even if you think you don't care for something silly like this, at least let the others celebrate for you." Offhandedly, he added, "And it's for Taniyama-san as well. I know we owe this all to her. You need to at least show up."

Noll clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked away. Everything Eugene said made logical sense. It would be bad form if he didn't show up. With a long, drawn-out sigh, he eventually relented. "Fine."

"Good! Now come, I'll pick out your clothes."

The two marched back upstairs and entered Noll's room. Eugene headed straight for the closet and began rummaging through the neatly hangered clothes, while Oliver sat down on his bed and watched his brother. He could not understand why despite their pending tardiness, Eugene was still choosing to waste time in making sure the style and color of the outfit would match nicely.

Gene pulled out several shirts, holding them across his chest and studying his reflection in the mirror. With each and every one, he would cock his head left and right, frown, and with a frustrated grimace, throw them haphazardly down the floor. Oliver frowned in annoyance, if only for the fact that the idiot was creating a jumbled mess on the floor.

Finally, Gene pulled out a crimson, long-sleeved shirt and appraised it once again by putting it against his own body and looking at his reflection in the mirror. He scowled and put on a moody air. Satisfied, he smiled and chirped, " **I don't remember seeing this shirt before, but this looks good on you, Noll. Pair it with black slacks and these shoes and you're good**."

Oliver rolled his eyes but stood up and yanked the clothes out of his brother's hands. Without any warning, he began stripping out of his pajamas, much to Eugene's surprise.

" **Oi, whoa warn me first!** " Gene cried, before turning around to give him privacy. " **We're not twelve anymore. You can't just go stripping like that!** "

" **Idiot. What do you think we do in the locker rooms?** "

" **That's different! We're in your room!** "

" **Your point escapes me. We have the same body. Stop your melodrama.** "

Eugene sighed.

And Noll was supposed to be the smart one.

At seventeen years old, they should have completed puberty by now and be more conscious of their body's development. Though they were twins, Gene really didn't want to know how Noll was progressing on that end. He shuddered just thinking about it.

' _Or_ ,' he thought, ' _maybe it still hasn't even hit Noll yet?'_ His brother's voice got deeper, but that was the first thing that happened to him too. Maybe his development was still incomplete. That would certainly explain his lack of interest in girls. Or could it be that maybe he just swung the other way?

Eugene pursed his lips at this and vowed to himself he'd support his brother no matter what. But then again there is a hint of interest in the opposite sex in him somewhere, most curiously directed at a particular brunette...

" **Hey Noll?** "

" **Yes, I'm finished. You can turn around now,** " came Oliver's sarcastic reply.

" **No, I meant to ask...** " Gene turned around and searched his brother's face before once again changing his language. "What's up with you and Taniyama-san?"

Oliver stiffened at the question, though why he did so, he couldn't even fathom. He made an effort to give a lighthearted shrug, as if to make a point of not caring as he answered, "I don't know what you mean. There's nothing."

"She says the exact same thing," Gene replied with a laugh and raised his brow. "You guys definitely have some history. But anyway, you hang out together during lunch, right?"

Oliver straightened out his collar and began combing through his hair with his fingers to get it to stay in place. "I wouldn't call it that. She obnoxiously goes out of her way to bother me; I mainly ignore her."

"Okay, but you go by first name basis. You are close, to some degree. How'd that even start?"

Noll walked past him to grab socks, effectively hiding his face away. " _You_ are 'Davis-san' to her, so that leaves her to call me by name. And she told me to call her by her first name."

"She _told_ you? Noll, plenty of other girls have told you to call them by their first name and you never did."

Oliver scoffed. "I've- "

Eugene cut him off. "Luella doesn't count, idiot."

"Then -"

"Madoka doesn't count either! She's practically our cousin with how often she and her folks come by. And she doesn't call you by name, she calls you by your nickname."

"She calls me 'Naru'," Oliver corrected.

"Right, which is a nickname."

"Because she's unable to pronounce my real name. Is there a point to this conversation?"

Eugene sighed in half irritation, half amusement. He gave his brother a sidelong glance and watched him having a bit of difficulty trying to roll up his sleeves before walking up to him and taking his hand.

Tentatively he asked, "Do you have a crush on Taniyama-san?"

Oliver snapped his eyes toward him. He responded in a low, unamused tone, " **Are you joking**."

Eugene winced. " **Yeah, okay sorry. I just thought maybe you were finally showing some romantic interest in someone, but the world would most likely freeze over first before you see anybody that way**."

Satisfied with his work, he dropped his brother's hand and walked toward the door. " **On a different note, do you think Taniyama-san would freak out if I asked her to call me 'Gene'? I don't like being called Davis-san. It's weird.** "

Naru only shrugged, saying nothing in reply and only pushed past his twin to step out in the hallway.

" **Think she'll get angry if I suddenly started calling her 'Mai'?** "

Oliver couldn't understand why the question suddenly made his stomach squirm. Chalking it up to the eggs he ate for breakfast, he pointed out to his brother flatly, " **Nothing has ever stopped you from calling girls by first names before."**

" **Mm,** " Eugene agreed, nodding his head contemplatively. " **I don't know, but for some reason Taniyama-san is different. I don't know what it is, but surely you know what I mean? She's practically the only other girl you can tolerate, so that's saying something. I think I'd really like to get to know her better. I don't want to push her away by suddenly freaking her out with the first name basis stuff**."

Oliver turned around and gave his brother a nonchalant shrug. " **She'd probably be happy to hear it. She's a simple minded idiot, just like you**."

Instead of being offended, Eugene exclaimed, " **Really? Then you're saying we'll get along fine?** "

"Most likely." With this, Oliver turned around and walked away, with Eugene following right behind him.

-000-

Mai and Kashima were already at the park by the time the twins arrived.

"Naru, Davis-san!"

"M- Taniyama-san!" Gene stumbled in calling back.

Next to him, Oliver scoffed and quietly taunted, " **Coward**."

Gene glared at him first before leaving his side and running up to the others. "Sorry we're a bit late... I forgot to set my alarm."

"Oh no, it's alright, we weren't waiting long."

"Where are the others? Has no one arrived yet?"

Kashima nudged his head forward. "The rest of them went to the cafe across the street to grab some drinks. Everyone is mostly here, we were just waiting for the two of you and Hara-san."

Gene nodded. Turning his attention back to Mai, he smiled and said, "It's the first time I'm seeing you in something other than the school uniform. That outfit looks really cute on you."

Mai flushed. "T-thank you, Davis-san. You... also... You look good." In a panic, she bit her lip and looked away, trying to land her gaze on something that might help ease her nerves. Unfortunately, she caught Oliver's azure eyes instead and the two of them blinked at each other in mild uncertainty.

Oliver saw her eyes quickly flit over his own outfit, but before she could even open her mouth to say something, a female voice came from somewhere behind them apologizing for arriving late. The four of them turned around.

"Have I kept you waiting for long?"

Gene, as usual, was the first to respond. "Masako-chan, good morning! Don't worry, Noll and I have also just arrived ourselves."

"Oh, good, I was worried I was very late. Good morning," she greeted everyone. Masako turned to Oliver and said, "It's nice to see you today, Oliver-kun."

The boy merely nodded. She gave him a look-over and added with a very satisfied smile, "Oh, if I'm not mistaken, that is the shirt I gifted you for Christmas, is it not?"

Oliver actually could not remember, so he chose not to respond.

"I'm very glad to see that the shirt compliments you very well! It looks really good on you."

"Ahh, okay, so _that_ explains why I don't really remember buying it! I think I'm responsible for all of Noll's more colorful, fashionable outfits so I was surprised when I found it this morning," Gene teased. "Nice choice, Masako-chan. I hope you don't mind if you see me wearing it one of these days."

Masako laughed. "Not at all, but it is Oliver-kun's decision, after all."

"Gene doesn't care whether I mind or not. My closet is practically an extension of his, with how often he raids it."

Mai swallowed the words she wanted to say and silently wondered to herself. Could there be something between Naru and Hara-san? She didn't want to pry, but it was definitely curious. It was obvious that Hara-san was interested in him, but Naru always seemed cold toward her. But then again, it _is_ Naru. Could they actually be in a relationship?

"Well since Masako-chan just arrived, that means everyone is all accounted for then."

"Was I that late? Where are the others?" Masako asked.

"Kashima-kun says they're at that cafe over there. Ah," Gene turned around to catch Mai's eyes and said, "I'll grab us something to drink, too. What would you like? I'll get it for you."

Mai frantically waved her arms in front of her. "Oh, no, no, it's alright, Davis-san. I can get my own..."

"It's alright. It's our date," he replied with a playful wink. "My treat."

Knowing that she'd be unable to sway the boy's decision, Mai sighed and once again found herself seeking familiar blue eyes as she racked her brain for the complicated foreign name of that coffee drink she ordered weeks ago. But to her annoyance, either Naru did not understand her silent plea, or chose not to understand and remained stubbornly quiet. "Uhm... then I'll have... matcha, please. Thank you very much..."

"Alright, matcha it is." Eugene looked over to his brother and saw Masako trying very hard not to fidget as if she was waiting for something. Knowing that his brother would be too daft to pick up on the cue, he slyly covered, "Oh, I guess as an apology for this morning I should buy you a drink, Noll. Just black tea, right? I'll cover for you as well, Masako-chan. What would you like?"

"Oh, no there is no need -"

"-Aw come on, it's alright. I'm feeling generous today. Come on, even if just this once."

Masako bit her lip. "I'm actually not familiar with the menu for this place... What kind of drinks do they offer?"

"Oh, then let's go together to look at the menu so you can properly decide."

"All this talk about drinks, I think I'll also grab one," Kashima added. Then he turned to his senpai and asked half-jokingly, "Does your freebie offer apply to me as well?"

Gene rolled his eyes. "Yeah fine." The three of them crossed the street, leaving Mai and Naru alone together.

A heavy silence blanketed them. Oliver was sure he saw her open her mouth several times as if she was about to say something, but kept deciding not to voice any of it out. He internally rolled his eyes and slightly turned his body to face her. Unable to stand it any longer, he said, "If you have something to say, then let's hear it."

She turned to him in surprise. "Well... you and Ha-," she paused midway and shook her head. "No, never mind. I just wanted to say..." she took a huge breath and heaved out, "You look really good today. Red suits you. There. I don't know what was so hard to say about that."

Oliver watched her carefully and found himself distracted. She was wearing a simple white off-shoulder top, which drew his eyes toward her nicely accentuated collarbone, and her slender legs underneath her very short, frilly light blue skirt was adamantly demanding his attention. He wondered briefly to himself why he never registered how pale her legs were, seeing that she wore an equally short skirt in school.

When he didn't reply, she scoffed and whined, "See, that's why it's hard to compliment you because you just take it and not say anything!"

He frowned. "What, did you want me to blush and stutter an embarrassed 'thank you'?"

Mai clicked her tongue. "An 'oh, really? Thank you' would be fine, or 'Haha, no not at all' as a form of fake humility would have also been okay. If you just don't say anything at all, it just becomes awkward."

"Is that so?" he replied disinterestedly.

"You're really such a narcissist." She crossed her arms in front of her and pouted.

Once again, he found himself momentarily distracted by the way her auburn locks curled and framed her face. Her furrowed brows and tiny pout elicited foreign emotions within him that he couldn't quite place.

Mai said softly, "Hara-san seemed really happy just now. I think she's probably been in a bad mood lately, so that was kind of you to wear that shirt for today. I didn't think you'd actually do something nice like that."

Oliver frowned. "It's not like that."

"Hm? What isn't?"

"The shirt. I didn't wear it for her sake." Oliver closed his eyes and sighed. "Gene just picked it out. If anything, you should thank him. Maybe he knew at some level that Hara-san needed to be cheered up by something ridiculous like this."

"And you had to ruin my vision of a kind Naru," she cried half-teasingly as she elbowed him playfully on the arm.

Before he could stop himself, his brain made him utter out, "You also look-" but fortunately at that moment, Takigawa and Kiriya's voice buried his words as they called out to them from across the street.

"-Yo, Davis, Jou-chan! Gene is asking you guys to come over to the cafe so we can all plan where we'll all go next!"

Oliver blinked and hung his head. What stupidity possessed him to utter those words?

Thankfully, Mai seemed completely oblivious as she waved back at the others and shouted back, "Okay! On our way!" She turned to him and tipped her head. "Come on, Naru!"

He sighed and followed after her.


	14. Gene and Mai's Date: Part 2

**Chapter 13: Part 2**

"They really look like stern parents watching their kids play, don't they?" Sakauchi whispered to his friends in amusement as he slyly pointed behind him with his thumb.

John and Kiriya covertly glanced back. Oliver and Masako were standing next to the benches upon where the group left some of their bags and drinks, silently watching Mai and the rest of the boys shrieking in laughter as they played at the arcade. Oliver had his hands crossed while Masako had one arm folded, holding the other by the elbow. Both looked similar in their stoic demeanor and bored aura.

"Hm. What does that make Lin-senpai?" Sakauchi continued with a lilt. The three shifted their attention to Oliver's left, where Lin stood looking just as morose.

"Maybe... grumpy grandfather?" ventured John innocently.

Silence. Then a muffled chortling ensued between them as they fought to keep their voices down. They turned back around and watched the so-called children in front of them.

Earlier back at the cafe, Gene had asked Mai where she wanted to go and she had shyly suggested the bowling alley. The team excitedly agreed, half of them having not gone bowling before. They had split into two groups: beginners and advanced, with Mai, Kashima, Gene, Sakauchi, Kiriya, Masako, and three first years opting for the beginner lane (Gene, knowing the game pretty well, decided to designate himself as the newbies' instructor), while Takigawa, Lin, John, Oliver, and the other four players competed against each other in the advanced lane.

Plenty of supportive cheering went on with the beginners' lane. Masako, who had never gone bowling before, had difficulties throwing her ball and would often send it careening into the gutter and before Gene could help her, Mai had pulled her aside and suggested she change to a smaller, lighter ball that fit her slender hand better. Immediately there was improvement and Masako had even graced her with a thankful smile.

In the advanced lane, tension ran much higher. Takigawa was almost always dominating, with John as a close second, while Lin and Oliver had been neck and neck for third place for most of the time. After that first match most of the team decided to disperse and mess around at the arcade part of the venue, while a couple of the other players decided to stay and play another round of bowling.

Kiriya nudged his head forward and whispered, "And look at that over there. The uncle that kids love, but parents hate because he's too childish."

As if on cue, Takigawa let out a roar of irritation as he desperately pushed buttons when the claw machine's grip on the doll gave out. The previously captured blue teddy bear tumbled back down as the claw mockingly made its way to deposit air into the chute. Takigawa pawed at the plastic glass and cried out, "This shitty game's pissing me off! Why'd you let go, you stupid arm! Alright, one more!" He hastily took another coin from Gene's hands.

"Stop wasting my money, Takigawa-san! I already gave you seven tries! You said it was ' _easy-peasy_ '."

Another one stepped up beside him and tonelessly suggested, "Let me try next, I can do better."

"Pay on your own, Kashima."

"But you were the one who asked for help, Gene-senpai. You wanted to win a stuffed toy for Taniyama, right? If I win with my own money, then it'd be just me winning it for her..."

Mai tried to interject, "Really, don't waste any more money on it! It's fine, I don't need a stuffed toy..."

"I didn't ask you guys to win it for me! I just wanted tips! You guys were the ones who decided to push me aside!"

"It's because you suck so much at arcade games, kid. You couldn't even get the arm to grab on to anything. Ahh! Man, this shitty arm! Somebody tighten the screws on this thing, it's too flimsy!"

Kashima sighed. "Takigawa-san, please. Just step aside and let me take care of it. This is getting to your head."

"Guys, really..." but Mai was largely ignored.

Behind them, the other players cheered thunderously as one of the first years rocked out to the loud, rhythmic beat on the Taiko Drum Master game.

Sakauchi, John, and Kiriya collectively sighed.

-000-

Takigawa and Kashima were staring at him with half-lidded eyes. Nonplussed, Gene gulped and muttered, "W-what?"

"Really, how could you dare call it a date and say you won that teddy bear for her?" Takigawa asked, pointing at Mai's approaching figure.

"I can't believe you asked Lin-senpai to win it for you."

Gene glared at Kashima and stomped his foot on the floor with annoyance. "I didn't ask Lin! He just invited himself and took over!" In a lower voice he added, "I think Noll must have told him to do something about it. Maybe."

"Either way, it's sort of pathetic, Gene."

"Takigawa-san, please don't say that! Besides, I didn't claim the gift was from me, did I? Even though that was technically my money anyway. Lin just did the work for me."

Kashima re-adjusted his glasses and further teased, "If it were me, I'd be severely disappointed that my date couldn't even win it for me himself."

Thankfully Gene was saved the trouble of having to argue another defense when Mai chirped up beside them, "Stop teasing him already, you guys! Davis-san, really, just ignore them. I don't think that way at all! Thank you for the teddy bear."

"Ah... but I really didn't get it for you, though..." Gene said, now feeling quite ashamed after all and scratching the back of his head with a sheepish look.

"No, but it was your money. And I thanked Lin-san as well. Oh and I guess thanks for the effort, Bou-san, Kashima. You tried your best, at least, but it just wasn't enough."

Kashima scoffed while Takigawa pretended a grimace. "Why are you being mean to us and kind to Gene, eh?"

Mai smiled. "Because you guys were mean first!"

Gene recovered and smirked. He said smugly, "Yeah, and because she's still my date, that's why. Bug off."

"Well, it can't be helped." Takigawa gave a mock sigh, shrugging and shaking his head with a grin. "Lady killer." He spotted an air hockey table off to the side. "Hey, fancy a match? We're still waiting for those blokes to finish their bowling championship anyway."

"Okay, you and Kashima against me and Mai?"

"Uh, how about Mai and Kashima against you and I? Last I remember you also sucked at air hockey. Kashima's actually quite good."

"Damn it, Takigawa-san. Stop making me seem so pathetic!"

"Kid, I'm not even trying."

While they were bickering, Kashima took Mai's hand and led her to their side of the table. He took the mallet and showed her how to handle it.

"It's just like hockey," he said, "You want this puck to go into your opponent's goal. Just hit it, but don't lift the mallet off the table and trap the puck underneath. That's a foul."

"Okay. It's best to hit it to the side so it bounces like crazy, right?"

"It depends on what you want to achieve, but yes, in a way." He proceeded to give her a few pointers. "I'll play against Takigawa-senpai so you'll face off with Gene-senpai. He sucks, really, so don't worry about it."

Mai laughed and nodded, stepping away to the side to allow the two players to begin the game.

Takigawa wasn't lying when he said he and Kashima were good at the game. They played a simple match, first to seven points, but it had taken them a while. Excitingly, both players were able to defend and score like it was a game of tug-of-war, but in the end, it was Kashima who brought home the win. He wiped his slightly sweaty forehead with the back of his hand and confidently handed the mallet over to his teammate.

"Don't waste our lead," he said in his typical languid tone, but his eyes looked playful.

Mai nodded with determination. "I won't!" She stepped up to the table and found herself facing off with Gene. She bowed slightly and said, "I'm new at this, but please don't hold back on me!"

"I won't-"

"-No point asking. This kid won't need to."

Gene rolled his eyes. "I'm just going to ignore you, old man."

Several feet away, Oliver rubbed at his temples.

Even without their obnoxious ring-leader, Yasuhara, the entire team still managed to act like a bunch of childish imbeciles. Though, he supposes, with Gene being such a ripe target for teasing, even the usually well-mannered Kashima couldn't help but join in.

Eugene really needed to stop being such a people magnet for his own good.

"Oliver-kun, are you feeling alright?" Masako asked beside him with a worried frown.

He pulled his hand away from his head and let the arm drop. "Yes, it's nothing."

"Maybe you'd like to sit down?"

"No, I'm fine. Thank you, Hara-san." Oliver turned his attention back to the idiots in front of him and Masako had no choice but to drop the subject.

"Alright here I go. I'll be serving first, Taniyama-san," Gene announced as he dropped the puck into the ring and shot it toward her side. The power behind it was good enough, but he had hit it at an angle and it went careening off to the side instead of going forward as he intended. Mai ended up swiping blindly left and right, somehow managing to hit it that it bounced off the wall at the perfect angle just once before finally sliding inside her opponent's goal.

"Whoa! I... I did it!" Mai jumped and threw her fist in the air.

A tiny flash of skin caught Oliver's eye as her tiny skirt rustled about.

"Okay, my turn to serve!"

They continued playing, with Takigawa doing most of the howling from the sidelines either from joy, or from anguish. Several times Mai and Gene fumbled and ended up hitting the pucks to their own goals, to which Takigawa lamented, "Oh my God, they're playing against themselves." But for the most part, their battle was actually pretty decent. By the time they neared the end of the game, the rest of the team had began gathering around and split themselves into two groups, cheering for each side.

Oliver's view remained unobstructed. He knew he probably shouldn't be focusing on it so much lest he get misunderstood, but something about the way the curious fabric floated airily about every time the short girl jumped to give herself a little boost kept garnering his attention. She really was very pale. Had she never gone out in the sun? That was such a ridiculous notion. Even just walking around to and from school should have been enough to give her even a little bit of tan.

Mai made some tiny noise behind her throat as she struggled to put more power behind her shots. To her right side, Kashima was calmly giving some pointers; in front of her Gene had a wide grin plastered on his face while Takigawa cheered him on.

"Chance, Taniyama, now! Hit it hard!" Kashima called out when Gene fed her a particularly weak shot.

She bit her lip then jumped, bending over the table a bit to give herself more leverage, and shot it back.

Behind her, unheard by the rest of the team as they erupted in applause at her sudden victory, Masako placed a hand by her mouth and gasped, "Oh, my..."

Oliver was stunned in his place and blinked several times.

Pink.

When she had jumped, they had gotten a glimpse of her undergarment. And they were shockingly pink. Beside him, he could feel Masako giving him a glare, silently questioning whether he also saw it, but he pretended ignorance and fought to remove the frown creasing his forehead and chose instead to put on a placid mask. When Masako's fierce gaze would not abate, he couldn't help but sigh out a little and avert his gaze, only to lock eyes with an equally stunned Lin to his left.

The two blinked at each other with wide eyes.

Now fully annoyed with himself, Oliver turned away and inwardly growled. It wasn't as if it was his fault. He just happened to be looking at her at that time. If anyone was at fault here, it was Mai for forcing them to unwittingly act like voyeuristic perverts.

"That was a fun match. Congratulations, Taniyama-san!"

"Thank you! But you didn't let me win, right?"

"No, not at all. I tried my best! That shot you did before made me mess up on that last shot and you took full advantage of it. It was a good game." He held his hand out.

She smiled and gingerly shook his hand. "Thank you! Good game!"

Suddenly Gene felt his phone vibrate in his pocket so he took it out and quickly scanned over his new Line message.

"Oo, it's Yasu," he said out loud for his friends to hear. "Hmm... He says he's bored and he's wondering what we're all up to now. I should send him a picture of all of us having so much fun."

He looked up and motioned for his nearby companions to move back toward where Oliver was, and the made them all squish together. Tentatively he placed a friendly arm on Mai's shoulder and held up the phone in front of him at a high angle, trying to get everybody in the shot as much as possible.

After taking the shot, he reviewed the image. He and Mai were in the front, smiling cheerfully at the camera. Behind him to his right side was Oliver, deliberately looking away with a scowl. Next to his brother, Masako was blushing from being forced to press on to Oliver so that she could get into the shot. Behind Mai was Kashima, looking straight into the camera without emotion as if he was staring deep into your soul, and yet behind him stood both Lin and Takigawa, both headless. He smirked and sent the picture.

A few seconds later, the phone pinged with Yasu's replies.

 _Yasu-chan: HAHAHAHAHAHA. LIN-SAN AND TAKIGAWA-SAN._

 _Yasu-chan: So beautiful._

 _Yasu-chan: You guys look like you're having so much fun, based on Kashima-kun and Oliver's faces. I really wanna go. :'(_

Gene chuckled and replied.

 _Then? Can you leave?_

 _Yasu-chan: Yeah you know what? I'll just bail. You said you guys planned on karaoke later right?_

 _Yeah. Karaoke around 5. Meet us there? Can you really leave? :0_

 _Yasu-chan: Yeah, whatever. I'll sweet talk them into letting me go ;P I'll be there._

 _K. See ya._

Gene closed his phone and announced, "Okay, Yasu says he'll be able to meet up with us later for Karaoke. What should we do now?" He asked Mai particularly.

"Oh... uhm, I already chose the bowling event. And you've chosen the Karaoke for later. Naru should decide where we go next!"

"Makes sense. So Noll?"

Oliver heaved a sigh. "Aren't you hungry? It's past lunch and you didn't get to eat breakfast."

"Oh," Gene laughed and rubbed his stomach. "Yeah, you're right, now that you say that. Where should we go?"

"Ichiran. It's only a couple of blocks away."

Gene's face lit up. "Yeah, ramen sounds good! But are you sure? You don't really like ramen."

His twin shrugged. "I don't care."

"Okay, is that fine with everyone?" he asked the group. When everybody agreed, he clapped his hands together and announced, "Alright-y then, let's go out for lunch now!"

-000-

The day had been exhausting. Whether or not he was having 'fun', he couldn't say. He didn't hate it though, but it didn't mean he enjoyed it either. But, he supposes, since the team seemed to be fully enjoying themselves, then he could say it had at least been a fruitful day.

He leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes, gently massaging the back of his head in little circles.

Gene, Yasuhara-san, and Takigawa-san were in the middle of singing (or was it screaming?) a song when he decided to step out into the empty lobby to take a break from the cacophony. Without being drunk they were already this obnoxious. He shuddered to think what they would be capable of when they reached legal drinking age.

He heard a distant door open, followed by the sound of tentative footsteps.

"What the- Naru?"

Oliver opened his eyes and met with cinnamon orbs staring back at him.

Close. She was a bit close. He leaned back to regain his personal space.

Sensing his discomfort, Mai moved back and apologized sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. You looked ill. Are you alright?"

"It's just a minor headache."

She sat down beside him, still with a concerned frown on her face. "Will a painkiller help?"

He gave it some thought then nodded.

"Okay, give me a second." She stood up and disappeared. After a few minutes, she came back with a pill and water in hand. "Here you go."

He took it and popped it into his mouth, chugging it down with water. He placed the paper cup down on the table in front of him and sighed a little thanks. "Where'd you get the medicine?"

"I always carry some with me when I go out. I used to get a lot of headaches too, but thankfully I haven't been getting them as much lately. I think the bright lights trigger them."

"Is that why you don't go out in the sun as much?"

"What makes you think I don't?"

"You're pale," he answered without thinking.

She hummed and lilted, 'Really? Am I?', but he chose not to reply and just kept his mouth shut.

"Noise is probably your trigger, huh?"

He raised his eyes toward her.

"I saw you cringing every time they screamed and yelled. Loud noises can also overload the senses and cause headaches."

"That explains why I get splitting headaches every damn time Gene is around."

Mai laughed and clutched her stomach. "You act like he annoys you so much, but you really care for your brother, right? You were worried about him since he hasn't eaten yet so you chose the ramen place. Davis-san said ramen is his favorite."

"I wanted ramen."

"Davis-san said you hated ramen."

Oliver didn't bother replying.

"This is fun," she suddenly said wistfully. "This is fun, right?" When he didn't reply, she looked ahead of her and continued softly, "Yes, it's fun, but some part of me feels... I don't know... jealous? Right now I'm having such a blast being with everyone. I feel like a part of the group. But I'm not, really. It's just for today, so because it's such a fleeting moment, I'm having fun, but at the same time, I'm feeling sad."

Oliver sighed. She really was an idiot. "What makes you think this is fleeting? It's not just for today. You are part of the group."

Mai turned to him with a hopeful look. "Really?"

"The team seem to have taken a liking to you. They're like monkeys; once you've been accepted into their social circle, you cannot escape. They'll never let you go now."

A wide grin was beginning to spread across Mai's face. "You really mean that?"

"That they're monkeys? Yes."

Mai laughed once again and Oliver found himself chuckling lowly as well.

After a few seconds of comfortable silence, Mai spoke up again. "Feel like the medicine is working?"

Oliver mumbled out a vague 'mm'. He asked her, "Shouldn't you be heading back with the others?"

"I will. Some of them saw you step out and were concerned you weren't having fun. They thought you ditched us. I'll let them know you just wanted some air."

He nodded.

She made a motion to stand up, but as if quickly realizing she forgot something, she hastily plopped back down again, sending the shock wave of her movement across the sofa and making Oliver bob up and down as well.

He raised his brow.

"I forgot. Before I head back, I wanted to ask you... " she pursed her lips to the side and breathed in. "What do you think Davis-san would like? As thanks?" When she saw the confused look on his face, she elaborated, "I owe him a lot. I know this was mainly a party for you and the team, but I'm thankful he invited me. It really... I know you'll probably think I'm an idiot or something, but it really means a lot to me to be... included like this. I've never really had much chance to hang out with others like this before, you know?"

"You mean for team activities?"

"Uh-huh. Not just that, but just group outings in general."

Oliver cocked his head to the side. "What about school trips?"

She shook her head. "I've never really gone... I never had the money. Heh." Biting her lip, she admitted, "I used to help out a lot at the orphanage I stayed at so I never really had much time, either. But now that I'm of age, I'm receiving a little bit more allowance and some distant relatives have been helping me out a little as well. So now I'm really trying my best to have some sort of social life. But, well, you know, school's a bit tough and all that."

"An orphan...?"

Mai smiled cheerfully again and waved her hands in front of her. "Yes, but sorry, I wasn't trying to get you to pity me, or anything. I was just explaining why something stupid like this is special to me."

Oliver quietly replied, "It isn't stupid. Stupid." He heaved a sigh before answering, "Gene's an idiot so he's easily pleased. Try calling him by his first name."

"You mean... call him 'Gene'? Really? That'll work? But that's..." she looked entirely unconvinced.

"Mai."

She stiffened.

"You asked me to call you by your first name. Why?"

"Other than the fact that you calling me 'Taniyama-san' sounds creepy?" Her fake scowl was quickly replaced with a blush. "I don't know, because I wanted to be friends."

"Then Gene will feel the same since you're very similar. You're both idiots, after all."

Instead of being offended, she excitedly cried, "We are? Really?"

Oliver couldn't help but scoff in dry amusement at the unintended proof she provided. Her sleeve slipped off to her shoulder and she absentmindedly righted it back up. Suddenly her previous words rang out in his head: 'You look good. There. I don't know what was so hard to say about that,' and he was struck with the thought of how she was always so true to herself, so full of determination. He could learn a thing or two from her. He swallowed.

"... It... suits you."

Mai's hand was still on the fabric of her shirt when he said that. There was a few second of silence before she put her arm down and blinked. Had the narcissist actually just complimented her?

Oliver saw a smile starting to form on her face, but a mischievous thought suddenly occurred to him and he added cheekily, "Pink, that is."

Mai tilted her head and frowned, casting a glance at her outfit. White shirt, blue skirt, white tennis shoes. What was he talking about? Then a slow look of comprehension came upon her face as she reddened to the tips of her hair.

"W-w-w-what?! What pink?!"

Oliver turned away smugly.

"Naru! You-!" but before she could lay it on him, the door opened and Gene bounded out.

"Taniyama-san! Were you able to find- Noll! Oh, you're still here." He ran up to them and sat down on the table directly in front of his brother. "You okay?"

Mai swallowed her retort and contented herself with huffing in silent annoyance, making sure to glare daggers at the perverted narcissist.

Noll sighed. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Did you want to go home already? I can let the others know we'll head out first."

"No, there's no need. I just needed some air."

"You're okay with going back? It's okay, we're almost wrapping up the last round." Gene laughed. "You guys missed Lin's turn. He had to do a rap song and he ended up doing a poetry recitation."

Oliver wasn't entirely sure if he should be disappointed, or glad to have avoided that scenario.

-000-

After Yasuhara won the title of 'karaoke champion' (the fact that he also doubled as the judge had nothing to do with the matter), the team decided to call it a night. Mai grabbed her bag and was on her way to head out with Kashima when Gene called out to her.

"Taniyama-san, I'd love to walk you home, if that's alright?"

"Oh, but don't you live the opposite way? I'll be alright. Actually I live in the same neighborhood as Kashima, so we'll be walking together for a good chunk of the way home anyway."

Gene insisted, "Then that means I'll walk you both home. I wasn't able to offer to pick you up this morning since I woke up late so please let me do this for you, at least. It's pretty late."

The girl hesitated, not wanting to inconvenience him, but seeing that her continued refusal would just probably depress him, she reluctantly agreed. "But then you'd be alone going back home..."

"No I won't. Noll will be with me."

Beside him, Oliver grimaced. "Don't include me in your stupidity. I will call Luella to come pick me up now."

"Oh come on! We should bring Taniyama-san home! Aren't you worried about letting her walk alone at night?"

"She's not alone, Kashima-kun is with her."

Gene retorted, "Yeah, but she said they'll split up at some point."

"Uhh... I guess I can walk her all the way home then, if you want, senpai," Kashima voiced with uncertainty.

"No, it's alright. We'll take her home."

"If you keep insisting, then why don't you just call Luella now and she can drive all of us home?" Truly, his brother could be so troublesome.

"Come off it, Noll. This gives us more chance for all of us to chat!"

And so it was that they found themselves engaged in conversation for most of the time, speaking of topics ranging from school work, games, movies, other hobbies, school gossips, and of course, tennis. As expected, Oliver only spoke up whenever tennis came up, but there wasn't much lapse in silence anyway thanks mostly to Gene and Mai. For some reason the two of them seemed to be able to carry a conversation regardless of the topic. Eventually Kashima separated off from the group, leaving the two brothers and Mai to forge on ahead, but as they said, Mai's apartment really wasn't that much farther from where Kashima split off.

"Well, here's my stop then," she said, stopping in her tracks and turning to them. "I really enjoyed today. It was a lot of fun. Thank you very much for inviting me along." Her heart skipped a beat when Gene smiled in reply (and Mai could swear Naru was smiling as well... somewhat). ' _I'm going to do it_ ,' she told herself.

"Please be careful on your way back. Let me know once you get home so I won't worry, okay?"

"I'll text you," Gene promised with a nod.

"Okay. Well, see you both on Monday! Good night, Naru... G-Gene-kun." She reddened as she said this and ran until she was behind the gates to her apartment complex. Once she felt she was of sufficient distance, she turned back around and gave them another wave.

Oliver tipped his head in acknowledgement and waited until she entered the building. When he turned around, he was surprised to find his twin still rooted to the ground, staring dumbfounded at where Mai used to be, with his face and neck completely flushed pink.


	15. Mai's Decision

**Chapter 14**

Toujo closed his eyes and allowed a small smile to pass across his face. Currently the team was being rowdier than usual, but he figured he'd let it pass. They did deserve it, after all.

After losing their strongest member in the team and having to re-shuffle their lineup, even he had to admit he felt worried at first, but thankfully, the team managed to pull through their first actual district match just fine. Their young captain's unwavering support, no doubt, became everyone's clutch inspiration to work twice as hard. When Davis had called the team together in a huddle for the pre-game pep talk, he had simply said, " _I'm looking forward to Nationals._ "

Everyone had shivered in nervous excitement.

Although Kiriya had lost his Singles 3 match, Lin played a rough start, and the rest barely skirted by, the team ended up winning the match overall. Now the boys (and Masako) had grouped themselves up according to their typical seating arrangements and were currently giving useful critiques about each other's weaknesses. This time, it was Kashima's turn to lead the talk.

This student-led, post-game critique was something a previous captain from a long while ago had suggested, and by now it's become sort of a tradition. However, although it sounded like an excellent way to introduce a form of democracy within the team, Oliver had been against it ever since he first participated.

Last year he often did not agree with other people's assessment and when he would say so otherwise, he would only receive sarcastic replies or faced blatant derision. The critiques everyone spewed were largely inaccurate since the juniors were always just pandering to their seniors and were unwilling to point out any mistakes lest they offend them by accident. Even within the seniors there was social ranking, so their appraisal of each other were pretty much worthless as well. In short, everything had been a farce. Now as captain, Oliver's initial response was to eliminate it completely, but Gene and Yasuhara had argued that it was best to try and change the team's mentality instead, especially now they had the power to do so.

So Oliver agreed.

They had just finished critiquing Lin and Takigawa, and were now set to discuss Kiriya. Kashima turned to the boy next to him and began, "Next up is Kiriya-senpai. In terms of improvements, I think his second serve had become very reliable."

The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"He didn't lose any point to a double fault," John added.

"His backhand shot is also a force to be reckoned with," another first year piped up.

Kashima continued, "Agreed. But on the other hand, Kiriya-senpai needs to work more on his first serves. Ten percent of the serves were 'let', and thirty percent were second serves."

Kiriya rubbed his chin and nodded contemplatively. "That is true. I was careless and nervous. I hit my serves even though I know I didn't toss right."

Takigawa, who was sitting in front of them and therefore had his body turned uncomfortably towards them, shifted his position. "Yeah, it was your first real match, so it's understandable. But hopefully now that you've gotten a taste for it, next time won't be so bad."

Yasuhara nodded. "I understand that feeling completely. There isn't an easy way to get over it but to just keep playing and to mentally steel yourself."

Near at the front of the bus stood Oliver, facing the rest of the team with an opened black notebook in his hand. He was resting against the backrest of the seat behind him, left shoulder flushed against the window, and one knee planted on his chair to keep himself balanced while the bus rolled along in motion. "I recommend playing more matches with players you don't usually practice with. Don't get comfortable just playing against the other second years. Challenge Takigawa-san and Lin, even the first years. If possible, see the possibility of playing against Matsuzaki-san and her team as well. The more variety of players you go up against, the more confident you become in being able to handle different types of players."

Kiriya nodded with determination and thanked the team for their input.

They moved on to Gene and Yasuhara's immediately after, then on to John and Sakauchi's.

Soon the discussion ended and the group broke off into idle chatter. Since there was still a long ride back to school, Oliver sighed and took some more notes regarding their practice routines. Next to him, he noticed Masako yawning for the fifth time, although she had been doing it discretely and quietly.

"Hara-san, if you're tired then you should rest."

Masako was caught off-guard and stared at Oliver for a few seconds before finally answering, "Y-yes... we have a long ride home still, after all. I will take a nap then."

Oliver nodded and went back to his notes.

The sound of Takigawa's voice suddenly rose up above the others as he asked no one in particular, "Have you guys noticed that Mai-chan's been disappearing early lately? She only stays for the first half-hour of practice now. Ne, Kashima-kun, she's in the same class as you, right? Oh, the kid's sleeping."

In fact, Kashima wasn't yet fully asleep, but he was getting there. Since he had already closed his eyes and was too tired to participate in the discussion, he just continued to pretend and kept his mouth shut. Besides, he wasn't sure if Taniyama wanted them to know she'd been using that time to practice on her own anyway.

Gene looked up and pursed his lip. "Mm... Come to think of it, yeah."

Takigawa was surprised. "You just noticed? I thought you and Mai-chan have become buddy-buddies lately?"

Gene found himself casting a quick glance toward Oliver first before replying, "More like Noll's been buddy-buddy with her. Right, Noll?"

Oliver frowned and didn't bother turning around as he answered, "No."

"You mean she hasn't been going up at the rooftop either?"

"I wouldn't know. I've had tests to study for and drills to think of, so I've been going to the library instead."

"What? But what if she came by and you weren't there?"

Oliver shrugged. "It's not like we make plans to meet."

Gene frowned. He was really confused. It didn't seem like Mai and Noll had any disagreements lately... In the amount of time she stuck around, the two of them had been acting normal. Perhaps she just understood and expected this finicky personality of his pretty well.

Yasuhara piped up, "Hey, does Taniyama-san play tennis? She's always around taking notes and watching, but I haven't actually seen her play."

"Hm, also come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen Masako-chan play either. You don't play, right, Masako-chan?" a second year added.

They all turned to the girl and found her resting with her eyes closed. "Oh, is she sleeping?"

"Hara-san is simply ignoring your mindless prattle," Oliver answered curtly behind his notes.

A tiny, appreciative smile formed on Masako's face, but she kept her eyes closed.

"Mm, not true," Gene countered. "Masako-chan plays from time to time, but to her, I think tennis is more of an entertainment interest rather than an actual hobby."

Kiriya spoke up. "But I don't get it. How could you like tennis that much and not want to play it? Where's the fun in just learning about it?"

"Well I like soccer a lot, as well, but I rarely ever play it. Sometimes it's also just fun watching and supporting a team playing an interesting sport, isn't it?"

"Sounds weird to me."

Finally unable to take anymore, Masako opened her eyes and crossed her arms. She leaned out slightly from her seat to look at Kiriya and huffed haughtily, "I'll like what I want to like. What does it matter that it doesn't make sense to you?" She gave him an irritated glare that came out as half-pout.

The rest of the team (with the exception of those who were sleeping or elsewhere involved) were momentarily frozen from the sudden outburst.

Suddenly, everyone started cheering.

"And there it is!"

"Aw, Masako-chan, your cuteness level goes through the roof when you get mad."

"Well done, Kiriya-kun."

Masako sunk back into her chair, incredibly embarrassed and annoyed. She surreptitiously glanced at Oliver from the corner of her eyes, secretly wishing he'd be a little annoyed and tell the team to cut it out, but he was just heavily engrossed in his notes and seemed to be perfectly content despite the obnoxious outbursts going on around him. It was Gene who ended up calming everybody down (though he was initially part of the crowd who teased her).

Some time later when the team had moved on to other topics, Gene leaned over from behind and placed a gentle hand on Masako's shoulder, asking softly into her ear, "Hey, you're not mad, right? Does it really make you uncomfortable?"

Masako sighed. "Honestly, it is a little uncomfortable... It always takes me by surprise and I never know what to do... when you guys say something like that..."

"We never mean anything bad by it, I swear. Masako-chan really is just cute."

Once again, she flushed and looked away.

Gene quickly pulled his hand away and fumbled out an apology. "S-sorry, sorry! I wasn't... I was trying to make you feel better and I ended up making you feel awkward again. Sorry!"

Beside her, Oliver rolled his eyes. "You really have no control over that smooth-talking of yours, do you, Lady Killer?" he asked.

"I'm really sorry. Also, don't call me that."

But Masako turned around again, laughing daintily behind her hand. "It seems Gene-kun will never change. Please do not worry, I know you boys don't mean anything bad by it. Thank you for watching out for me and always making sure I'm alright, Gene-kun."

Gene smiled. "Of course."

-00000-

The next day, as soon as she bumped into Kashima first thing in the morning, Mai questioned him about their match. He told her that they won and then proceeded to give her a detailed breakdown of the matchups.

"Oh... also on the ride back home, Takigawa-san brought up the fact that you've been sneaking off early lately. And then everyone began wondering whether you played tennis since you've been studying it so diligently."

"Oh?"

"You've been using that time to sneak off to hit against the walls, right?"

"Yes... Did they figure it out?"

Kashima shook his head. "No, they seemed suspicious about it. At some point they began wondering if you were just failing your classes."

"Urk." Because of this, Mai decided that she was going to swing by the courts today and stay a bit longer to avoid worrying her friends unnecessarily. Kashima told her they weren't having a full practice today and were just scheduled to do some short drills and a few laps around school grounds so they could recuperate.

Since she was in charge of cleaning duties again, Mai arrived at the courts later than she intended.

When she entered the courts the rest of the team were still finishing up their last drill, and off to the sides she first saw Masako. Beside her sat Oliver, who was without a shirt and was currently being attended by an older woman with a startlingly pink hair.

They didn't immediately notice her presence so Mai had some time to appreciate the view. Naru's torso was slender and toned, the muscles on his shoulder and abs perfectly lean and well defined. With his smoldering looks, his raven hair, bright blue eyes, and long lashes, Mai was sure even his namesake, Narcissus, would have paled in comparison to his beauty.

His eyes suddenly wandered over to hers and having caught her staring, he looked at her strangely. She became flustered and stammered out, "H-hello! Just stopping by to see what was up..."

"Ah," the woman with the pink hair called out. "Hello there! I don't think we've met before. I'm Mori Madoka."

Mai bowed and introduced herself. "I'm Taniyama Mai. Pleased to meet you."

The lady bowed back before going back to her task. She was currently measuring how much tape she would need and snipping them to the right lengths. Madoka seemed to sense her piqued curiosity and she chirped, "Are you wondering what I'm doing to Oliver right now?"

Mai was about to reply when Madoka simply proceeded to answer her own question. "I'm just taping him up! This child was seriously so against taping at first, saying it was pointless, but look at him now. He's been relying on it too much."

In the back of her head, Mai wondered what Madoka's relationship to Naru could be, that she could get away with calling him ' _this child'_.

"Madoka. You're blathering again."

"I'm taking care of you right now so I get to 'blather' as much as I like."

"Uhm, actually, Mori-san, I was more wondering who you were..."

"Ahh. Coach Toujo is my uncle. He's been my tennis coach, even when I was still a student here."

"Ooh, Mori-san is also a tennis player? Uhm, were you in the girls' tennis team?"

"I play, but I've decided to focus on college for now so I haven't been playing tennis as much. I didn't join the girls' team here because I wanted to practice on my own time and didn't want others to rely on me too much." As she spoke, she continued cutting the tapes and plastering them on Naru's back. "I was more interested in competing in individual tournaments. Being a part of a team is a really huge commitment, so instead I opted to become the boys' tennis team manager. That way I got to learn about tennis and was able to join in during their drills, but none of it was ever mandatory!"

Naru scoffed. "It must be nice to be so carefree all the time."

"Well, not everyone can be respectable like you," she teased, and Naru immediately shut up again. "I just come by and help my uncle from time to time. I'm acting as the assistant coach, but they also rely on me to take care of their injuries."

"I see."

"So is Taniyama-san a member of the girls' tennis team?" Madoka asked.

Mai noted to herself how Mori-san seemed to always speak in a sing-song.

By this time, the rest of the team had begun to gather around them. Bou-san was the first one to wave at her, and Mai returned the gesture sheepishly. Turning back to Madoka, she shook her head in embarrassment and answered, "No, I'm afraid I'm not. I understand what you were saying earlier, how joining a team is a big commitment. I'm not ready yet, so for now I'm just practicing on my own."

Kiriya asked, "Aha, so you do want to play after all. Which one do you think you'll be interested in joining? Singles? Or Doubles?"

"Doubles is fun, I highly recommend it," said Sakauchi. "The difficulty is finding a partner you can rely on, but once you find them, it's actually a pretty amazing feeling to know there's someone who's got your back."

John blushed. "Those are very kind words, Tomoaki-san. Thank you, I'm glad you see it that way."

Sakauchi clapped him on the back.

"Singles is nice too," Bou-san added. "I like calling my own shots."

They all looked at her.

"Oh uh... I'm actually not sure yet. I'm still a beginner after all, so there's no way I can properly choose."

"For the meantime, how about signing up as a manager for our team?" Gene asked.

The others immediately cried in agreement.

"Yeah, if you became our manager then you can hang out with us more! And you can join in our drills and practice with us."

Masako haughtily retorted, "Please. There's no need for Mai to join this team."

"Hey!"

"I have no need for an assistant."

"Assistant?! And who says I'd want to be your assistant, Masako?!" Mai cried indignantly. She pointed an accusatory finger toward the girl. "That's _so_ not cute."

Masako only harrumphed in response.

By this point, Madoka had finished up and patted Oliver's back. "Alright kiddo, all done."

Oliver scowled at her intonation, but made no effort to snap back. He simply nodded before grabbing his shirt and putting it back on. He walked over to his bag, hoisted it up on his shoulders, and glancing back to the others, said, "After you finish the laps, you are all dismissed. I'll see everyone tomorrow." Before Mai knew it, he was already walking away.

"Where is Naru going?"

"The library. There's no point in him hanging about while we run since he's still injured anyway," Gene answered. "We have tests coming up so he's just making good use of his time."

Madoka and Masako began packing their bags and bid everyone their goodbyes as the rest of the team started streaming out of the courts, opting to get the laps over with so that they could go home for the rest of the day. Gene watched them leave him behind, confident that he'd be able to catch up to them soon anyway.

"Will you be headed home after you finish your lap, Gene-kun?"

"Ah, no. I've got to retake my chemistry test today. It's a good thing practice will ended early today- I won't have to stay so late." Gene wondered if it would be alright to ask her if she'd be around for a bit and whether she'd want to grab some dinner with him and Noll later, but strangely, he found himself hesitating. He swallowed it up and instead just excused himself. "I'll be off! I'll see you later, Mai!"

"Okay, see you later!"

-000-

Oliver looked at his watch. It was already five-thirty, meaning Gene should be finishing up his test soon, provided he didn't get stuck on a problem. He walked out of the library and started heading toward the courts. However, remembering the teams' conversation earlier and what Mai had said, he became curious and started heading for the wall, which was somewhat hidden away somewhere beyond the courts. Sure enough he found her there, struggling to keep up with the ball as she hit it, but her determination was palpable.

He watched her silently for a couple of minutes before blurting out, "Pivot more."

This startled her and she ended up hitting the ball upward, sending it flying over the wall. "Eek!" She turned sharply around and huffed, "Jeez, you scared me, Naru!"

He gave her a blank look.

She sighed and set her racket down before disappearing behind the wall to go after the runaway ball. When she got back, she was surprised to find him still standing there. "You're still here. Was there something you needed?"

Naru crossed his arms and raised his brow. "Am I unwanted?"

"I didn't say that!" she cried. "I was only asking. Yeesh. I thought you left already? Practice has been over for a while now, hasn't it?"

"I'm waiting for Gene."

"Ahh. See, so despite how much you act like you don't care, you still wait for him so you can go home together, right? That is the sign of a doting younger brother," she drawled in a sing-song.

Naru scowled. "Idiot. It's just more convenient this way." But he wasn't even sure what he meant.

Sensing his bull-shittery, Mai smirked. Then she remembered she hadn't extended her congratulations to him yet and proceeded to offer it. "Everyone worked so hard, I'm so glad everything worked out. It must be a relief to get over that hurdle."

"It's only the beginning," he replied with a shrug. "We'll continue to work harder. We can't afford to get careless."

Mai nodded. "Uhm. Earlier you said something about pivoting. What did you mean?"

Naru uncrossed his arm and walked up right beside her. He demonstrated the move, putting himself in a low, wide stance, then pivoting from his hips and rotating his right foot on his tip-toe in conjunction with the full swinging motion of his arm. He repeated this several times while Mai tried to copy him.

"Beginners often make the mistake of swinging their arms to hit while staying stiff from the bottom down. This limits the power you can generate, not to mention it messes with your ability to reposition yourself for the next shot. They also tend to abruptly pause in the middle of a full swing. The arm needs to be quite loose as you swing so that the transfer of power from the racket to the ball is more fully transitioned."

Mai nodded furiously. However, she couldn't quite get the full range of motion. Without thinking, Naru walked up behind her and put his hands on both sides of her hips, only realizing their intimate position once he got a whiff of her strawberry-scented shampoo.

The two of them stiffened momentarily at their proximity.

Oliver was the first to break out of the trance. Instead of pulling back, he decided going through the action would be the less awkward choice, so he just silently guided her hips through the pivoting movement.

"Ah, so I have to move that much..." she commented in a weak voice.

"Try swinging your hand with the movement."

Mai did as she was told. As with her hips, Oliver held her wrist and guided it through the swing. Once he felt she got it down, he immediately let go and stepped back.

Although she felt incredibly flustered (her heart felt like it was about to give out any minute now), Mai took several deep breaths and eventually steeled herself. As soon as she was able, she refocused her attention on the moves and memorized the feeling. Satisfied with her movements, Naru decided it was time to give her a ball to work with.

The first few times she struggled and kept having to chase the ball throughout the length of the wall. Once, she even managed to hit it too hard that it rebounded past her, but Oliver's quick reflexes allowed him to easily catch it with his hands. Eventually, Mai managed to hit five consecutive shots without breaking stride.

She pumped her fist in victory and turned to him with a beaming smile. Oliver rolled his eyes, but found himself feeling satisfied and smirking back at her in return.

"Why are you hesitating?" he eventually asked, referring to her attitude about joining the girls' tennis team.

Mai looked down and put her arms behind her. "Because..."

Oliver sighed. "I understand the feeling of not wanting to let the team down. But," he looked at her in the eyes, "if you're really serious about getting better, you shouldn't keep putting this off. You were the one who told me to accept other people's help, so you should follow your own advice. There's only so much you can learn on your own without the help of a coach or the support of your teammates."

He hesitated for a bit before continuing, "Madoka had told me she regretted her decision. She was the one who kept urging me to step out of my comfort zone and consider joining the team. I would rather you keep this between us... but her insistence was the main reason I decided to join. And so far, I can't say I regret it."

She took in his words and nodded slowly. "... I just worry I'll make trouble. I'm not very good."

Naru scoffed. "No one is born good."

Mai looked at him with half-lidded eyes and muttered, "I really don't think you have any business saying that."

"It's not like I was born knowing how to wield a tennis racket."

"But you were born with innate talent for it."

His eyes softened. "I still struggled in the beginning. And how do you know you're not also talented? You haven't even tried."

At that moment, Mai noticed the warmth emanating from Naru's barely perceptible, but kind smile. It was a rare sight, but one that she knew she would cherish for a while.

Her heart swelled as she heavily contemplated his words, summoning the courage to commit to something she truly wanted for herself. She looked into his eyes with full determination and nodded.

-000-

The next day, Mai skipped the boys' tennis practice altogether and headed for the other courts. When she got there she saw that the girls were already gathered inside, finishing up their initial stretching.

She clutched a hand to her chest and breathed in deeply. Steeling herself, she opened the gates and walked straight toward a certain red-haired captain.


	16. Oliver's Observations

**Chapter 15**

"Alright, we'll pick up the lecture next time," the teacher announced amidst the din of chattering and shuffling of impatient students as the lunch bell tolled in the background. Oliver inched forward in his seat and turned his ear toward the front of the classroom, struggling to hear the rest of her words.

"Don't forget: the worksheet is due next week so get started on it if you haven't done so already. Hint: it's a great way to review for your exams, particularly section B. It's worth a lot of points, so make sure you guys do it, okay?"

"Okay, okay!"

"Ye-es!"

"Finally it's lunch time! I'm hungry!"

"Can 'ya lend me some money today? I forgot my wallet at home."

"You already owe me _one thousand yen,_ you know? When are you going to pay up?!"

Oliver frowned as the teacher sighed to herself and receded in the background. She was much too timid. It made it too easy for his ignorant and idiotic peers to walk all over her. It was too bad; she was actually quite decent at teaching Japanese literature- good enough to make him pay attention and actually somewhat enjoy the subject.

… Perhaps ' _enjoy_ ' was much too strong of a word, he decided after some reflection. Rather, he tolerated it better, but having to look up almost every other Kanji made for a very slow and tedious reading.

The noise gradually subsided to a tolerable level as several of his classmates left the room. Reaching into his bag, he took out the bento that Luella had packed for him, glancing backward by chance and noticing even with just a cursory glance the troubled expression on Gene's face. Their eyes met.

He watched as Gene pocketed his phone and nudged Yasuhara. Together they approached him, shuffling the desks around to settle down beside him, with their own bento lunches in hand.

"John just texted me," Gene explained without prompt. "He says he's sick and didn't go to school, so he'll miss practice."

"Okay."

"What's today, Tuesday?"

When Gene opened his bento, Yasuhara clapped his hands together. "Wow, you guys always have nice bento! Can I have one of your sausages? That sucks about John. And no, it's Wednesday."

"Damn, so Sakauchi would be helping out at the library…"

Oliver had a feeling about what his twin was getting at, so he didn't bat an eye when Gene suddenly bolted from his seat and ran out the door.

"What's he on about?" Yasuhara asked as he helped himself to one of Gene's octopus-shaped sausages. He made some ridiculous noise as he nibbled on it. "Just like a high school girl! How adorable is this? Really, your mother is amazing."

A few seconds later Gene came back, bringing Hara Masako with him as Oliver had expected. Gene grabbed a desk for her and motioned for her to sit down.

Masako thanked him with a little nod before sitting down at her spot opposite Oliver. Although she was obviously quite pleased with the situation, she turned to Gene in confusion and asked, "Did something happen?"

"Oh. Yeah, we just have this worksheet due next week and we're not quite up to speed with the reading. The Kanji really slows me down and Yasu's not that good with modern lit. Noll's, well... you know. Anyway, the novel, _No Longer Human_ \- can you give us a quick summary?" he asked with his disarming smile.

Masako laughed daintily and nodded, launching into an in-depth explanation of the novel as the four of them ate their lunch together.

Oliver was surprised to see even Yasuhara actively listening and acting as if he really did not have any clue about the topic when he knew, for a fact, that the two pretend-idiots had just finished the worksheet the day before. Yasuhara must be playing it by ear; his synchronization with Gene was truly remarkable.

The reason for Gene's action was obvious: with John absent and Sakauchi busy with extracurricular chores, Hara would have had to spend the entire lunch period eating alone in the classroom next door. However that was as far as he understood of the situation. What Oliver couldn't understand was why that scenario troubled Gene in the first place, enough to invite her over and force him to make up some lame excuse for doing so just because he couldn't tell her outright that he simply didn't want her to be alone.

He wondered how it was that Gene excelled at understanding people, yet he couldn't understand that Hara Masako would have actually been perfectly alright being by herself.

Oliver always observed how his twin conducted himself around people. Based on his analysis, he believed it was because Gene was so finely in-tune with his own emotions that made him perfectly empathetic to how others felt, so Gene knew exactly what to say and do in critical moments. He treated them the way he would have wanted to be treated if he were in their shoes. Right now he asked intelligent questions that would allow Hara to demonstrate her literary proficiency, and chose which topics to answer confidently to make her see that he wasn't all fool. Oliver was impressed with how he managed psychological manipulation with such nonchalance, as if it was second nature to him. As a result, Hara felt confident and happy around him. But perhaps it was this trait of his that made him blind to Hara's natural mindset.

Gene's knowledge base was biased. Because Gene never wanted to be left out, he believed everyone also disliked being alone.

But Hara Masako was different. It made no difference to her if people left her alone. In fact, she preferred it most of the time.

Oliver understood her because they were the same.

As he placed a sweet potato tempura in his mouth, the girl named Kasai (he only knew her because she was the volleyball team's ace) came running back into the room, a little out of breath.

"Hey, our team's playing a home game today so we need to prep the courts before they get here, but I think the track and field team left their heavy mats in front of our stuff. Can someone help us move them?"

Gene stood up. "Sure, I'll help." He followed her out without any other word.

It wasn't until Gene disappeared that Yasuhara sighed in resignation and stood up as well. "I'm pretty sure that scrawny boy won't be able to carry those mats away by himself. Please excuse me for a moment."

Now that it was just the two of them, Masako's demeanor changed. She wasn't cheerful and all smiles, but Oliver could see that she seemed more relaxed as they ate in easy silence. He couldn't blame her. Gene and Yasuhara were both very energetic people and even he felt drained being around them for long periods.

Suddenly, Oliver overheard his name from the whispered conversation of the girls behind them.

" _Hey, so are Davis-san and Hara-san really dating?"_

" _Yeah, I think so. Don't they just look so good together?"_

" _She's so pretty, and he's so handsome. They're like the perfect couple. They're so quiet though. I wonder how they are when they're truly alone?"_

" _You think it was really romantic, how they got together? Who do you think asked?"_

" _It's got to be him. The guys always ask."_

" _No, not always. Maybe it was her. Imagine: they're both very distant, rarely saying a word to anyone. In time, they realize they're kindred spirits and away from sight of other people, they spend time together and begin to act more lively. She ends up falling for him and she can't stop her feelings. She confesses in the heat of the moment. He's completely taken by surprise and realizes he also liked her all along. Isn't that so romantic?"_

He tried not to roll his eyes, but he wasn't surprised, knowing how wild imaginations ran with those people.

" _I want to ask, but I can't approach either of them… They're very intimidating…"_

"How's your arm doing, Oliver-kun?" Hara suddenly asked. "You haven't been overworking it, have you? You're always so stubborn..."

The way her mouth curved upward, freezing into a sweet and tender expression on her face, disagreed with him. When the girls erupted into a silent squeal at overhearing this, Masako's face beamed more subtly, but at least that one seemed genuine. Oliver narrowed his eyes. She must have heard their conversation as well and spoke up to fuel the fire.

He knew Masako enjoyed it when people admired her. It allowed her to be kept at a distance, to be seen as someone to idolize. Having him and Eugene around further helped her achieve a status of untouchability. Eugene served as their attractant; people flocked to him instead like flies attracted to light, leaving the two of them by the sideline. And having each other as a shield further stopped other people from approaching.

Together they were an impenetrable wall.

He understood her perfectly, and like her, used their relationship to his advantage. That's why it never bothered him when people gossiped.

"My arm's fine. Thank you, Hara-san."

* * *

 **A/N:** _Sorry for taking so long to update! I made a lot of changes the previous chapters for readability because I couldn't get over some of the cringe I felt. Now that that's done, I've been able to move forward! Thank you for your continued support. Please review when you get the chance :)_


	17. Growing Pains

**Chapter 16**

Like the day before, and the day before that, Mai woke up with another pathetic wail. She was aching in places she never even knew existed, and reached a never-before-experienced level of exhaustion. Even lifting the blankets off her body proved to be an undertaking.

Mai covered her eyes and tried breathing slowly and deeply, trying to check in with her own body. How badly damaged was she today? She remembered learning from health class a while back that after intense workouts, muscles become sore due to suffering several micro-tears. She could imagine her muscle fibers now must be frayed like a worn out deck rope.

She couldn't even remember the train ride back (she must have dozed off), or even the final walk she had to do to reach home. Though she could barely hold herself together, she at least remembered eating dinner (she had been embarrassingly ravenous from hunger), working on homework, and showering. After climbing to bed she must have immediately fallen asleep and stayed in the same position the whole night, for her shoulders and lower back were now stiff. Once she managed to shift her position, she heard five loud _cracks:_ three for her lower back, and two for her very stiff neck.

Matsuzaki-buchou was _terrifying_.

Even more than she anticipated, and the drills served to make her fully aware how embarrassingly out of shape she was.

Mai groaned some more and summoned all her will to get up. For the briefest moment she dreaded having to do it all again, but upon reflecting on all the things she learned in so little time, recalling how the girls had been so helpful and friendly, the feeling was quickly replaced by excitement.

This is what she had been wanting to do for a while now. She just needed to get used to the initial shock, then her body would grow accustomed to the rigors of training. The payoff would be splendid; she envisioned herself playing with the others, and maybe once Naru got better, even hit against him for fun.

"No pain, no gain," she recited under her breath. In a much lighter mood, she got up to get ready for school.

-0-

Not even her excitement and new-found enthusiasm could have saved her from time's strange penchant for slowing down during lecture, however. Even though she knew she couldn't afford to zone out, especially now that she didn't have as much time to study on her own any more, staying alert long enough to follow along with the teacher was near impossible. And yet she couldn't sleep either, not exactly for fear of getting caught, but because it hurt to even slump over the desk. She was therefore left in a state of limbo: not awake enough to be considered conscious, yet not asleep enough to be relaxed.

Thankfully class was eventually dismissed for lunch. As she was coming out of her weird trance, she heard a giggle to her left and she turned around to meet Michiru's obnoxious, jeering face.

"What's up with you? Even _Sensei_ thought you were too far gone he didn't even bother snapping you out of it. Kind of nice of him, though, I guess."

As Michiru' face shifted into focus, Mai only then realized that she had been mildly cross-eyed all along.

"Are you sick?"

Mai turned to her right side and answered, "No, I'm okay. Thanks, Keiko."

Beside Keiko stood Kashima, silently looking at her with a raised brow.

She shook her head again, this time unable to resist a yawn as she reiterated "Really, I'm just tired."

"Matsuzaki-senpai's pretty tough then, huh?" Keiko asked, to which Mai sighed and nodded in reply.

No, wait- actually, wasn't that was a gross understatement?

Matsuzaki-buchou had been running the team ragged. Mai kind of hoped she'd be slowly eased in to doing insane suicide drills since she'd just joined the team, but she was sorely mistaken. The red-head captain had looked at her and discerned her thoughts and had burst out laughing (quite maliciously, maybe?) and said that she didn't believe in giving anybody any special treatments.

"When Keiko and I first joined the volleyball team, we complained about being exhausted for _weeks_ , remember? So I think you'll be alright. It's hard in the beginning but your body will get used to it. Eat lots of protein, like eggs!"

Mai laughed. "Eggs again? You're so obsessed."

"I-it brings good luck!" Michiru muttered, looking away. She had a pink tinge to her cheeks. However she quickly shook it off and made a dismissive motion of her hands, walking away saying, "Bathroom break. Meet me at the cafeteria."

When she was gone, Kashima blurted out, "So _that's_ what it was." Turning to his companions, he explained, "Before I left for our match the other day, Kinoshita-san just handed me three eggs and said, 'Eat well'. While I did appreciate the gesture, it did confuse me a bit."

Keiko and Mai burst into laughter.

Mai stood up, bracing herself against Kashima and groaning as several of her joints cracked loudly, taking her by surprise. She massaged her back.

"And there's more to come later…" she lamented.

-0-

Unfortunately for Mai, practice proved even tougher that day. After some groundstrokes drills, short sprints, and a hectic round of a mini-game called 'King of the Hill', they were ordered to do one lap around the school grounds.

She was one of the last ones in the group to reach the finish line (she had a feeling some of the girls were going slower to make sure she wasn't entirely left behind). Fire raged in her chest, and her limbs felt wobbly. She slowed to a stop and doubled over, gasping for more air.

"Taniyama-san, you shouldn't collapse like that, it makes it worse."

Mai found herself being guided to a straighter position, both her arms being folded up to reach behind her head.

"Crumpling over just constricts your lungs more, so keep your body straight. Also when you run it's better if you don't hunch over and stomp. Try to imagine you are weightless and lose the tension in your body. It will improve your form and stamina."

Mai nodded as she took mental notes and stored the information away in her mind.

"Oh!" the other girl suddenly cried, covering her mouth and tipping her head. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to start lecturing like that."

Mai shook her head and gasped out, "No, no, not at all, Yoshifumi-san! Any help is greatly appreciated... I'm not very athletic at all, so I'm probably going to be doing a lot of things wrong, so please help me out whenever possible."

"Just Naoko is fine, I don't mind."

"Then thank you, Naoko-san. Please call me Mai as well."

"You actually joined at a bad time, Mai-san," Naoko said sheepishly. "The next match isn't until two weeks from now, so we're deep in endurance training at the moment. I heard the Captain recently went to speak with Davis-san to get more ideas, so she's been trying to add more conditioning. It's been really tough, even for us regulars, but Ayako-san loves a challenge." At this, Mai's lips did a slight quiver, which made the girl burst out laughing. "Are you okay?"

Laughing back in response, Mai answered, "Yeah, I'm just not used to any training, whatsoever, but I guess it's good that I'm starting off with a harder difficulty. In this way, my body only gets shocked once and hopefully it'll be smooth sailing afterward?"

"Yeah, I think that's a good way to think about it."

-0-

Since their practice ended a little early that day, Mai headed toward courts on the other side of campus to check in with everyone. She hadn't seen them the entire week.

When she arrived, she found the boys gathered outside the courts, watching the match before them in concentration and palpable excitement. As she got closer, she realized that it was Gene and Yasuhara facing off in a singles match. It was merely practice, but she could tell the two of them took it very seriously.

Just then, Yasuhara hit a short ball that floated near the net, forcing Gene to sprint up. As Gene approached the ball, he planted his feet firmly on the ground and settled into a solid stance, but rather than intercepting the ball by keeping his racket mostly stationary and imparting a slice as with a normal volley as she expected, he instead took his racket back and swung a full forehand shot, taking the ball in the air. Prior to this he'd been having difficulty getting the timing right, but this time, the ball whizzed back to the other side of the court.

Unfortunately for Gene, however, he still couldn't control its direction and luckily for Yasuhara, he was exactly in the right position to return. It was a magical stroke of luck how Yasuhara managed to lower his racket on time to get the ball on the rise before it bounced out of his reach. Yasuhara grunted and shot it back.

To everyone's surprise, the returned ball was a winner.

Cheers erupted all around.

Naru called out, "Game. Excellent match, both of you. Congratulations, Yasuhara-san."

"Wha- but- but-," Gene was at a loss and looked at Yasuhara in bewilderment. " _How_ the hell did you get that?"

Yasuhara rubbed the back of his neck, just as surprised. "Honestly, I have no idea. I lowered my racket down and everything aligned in the cosmos."

Gene pouted and clicked his tongue in annoyance, but shook his friend's hand warmly regardless. "Good game."

"Good game. That was a really nice swinging volley, though. You got the timing all perfect."

"Yeah I was surprised, too, but I couldn't aim it well. Still, I can't believe you got that shot. Way to dampen my moment."

Yasuhara laughed.

"Those who won your matches need only to run one lap. Those who lost will do two."

Though the team grumbled, everyone broke off and did as they were told. As the team filed out of the courts, the boys waved at Mai. Mai congratulated Yasuhara with an overly enthusiastic wave, which he returned with a thumbs up.

Still at a loss regarding his recent match, Gene almost didn't notice her, so when he passed by closer she yelled, "That was a really cool shot, Gene-kun!"

She laughed when Gene nearly lost his footing at this. He turned back to look at her without stopping his jog and grinned, yelling out his thanks, then upon registering her unusual attire looked at her quizzically. However the rest of the team were already rushing past so he couldn't halt in his tracks and he was already too far so he couldn't keep up a conversation. As he kept on in a slow backward jog, he pointed at her, raised his brow, and vaguely gestured to his clothes.

Mai guessed that he must be asking why she was donning gym clothes, and realizing that she never told him of her plan to join the girl's tennis team, mouthed back that she'd text him about it later. His response was to tilt his head in confusion, not being a great lip reader, so she changed tactics and used her hands to indicate texting and calling.

"Later, later!" she yelled.

Gene's face lit up in understanding and nodded his head. The two of them kept their eyes on each other for as long as they could, as if magically trying to telepathically communicate, but soon Gene had to take a turn at the corner and he disappeared from view, waving until the very end.

She turned back around and walked towards the bench, where Masako and Naru were sat, waiting for their teammates' return. Masako was rummaging through her bags, while Naru appeared preoccupied in his thoughts.

"Hey Masako, hey Naru," she greeted. As expected, she didn't receive any verbal response, but they at least turned to look at her and acknowledged her presence with the slightest nod of the head.

"Mai… did you spill something on your school uniform?" Masako asked curiously, eyeing her gym clothes.

"Oh no... actually I just came from practice…"

"Practice?" Masako's face lit up in understanding, remembering the conversation with Madoka and the team from before. "I see, you've joined the girls' team?"

"Y-yes. Just this Tuesday!"

"Your tracksuit pants are too long. Wouldn't skirts serve better?"

Mai and Masako turned to each other and did a double-take.

Did Naru just talk fashion?

Realizing that he hasn't had great luck when it came to skirts and the brunette, not to mention the possibility of it being taken the wrong way, he immediately retracted his statement. "Of course, what you wear is nothing of my concern. It's only that women usually wear skirts," he supplied, still in his straightforward tone, but it wavered in uncertainty just the tiniest bit.

Mai got the gist of his implication and remembering their recent incident, reddened. She sputtered, "What. No, I know what you meant. I didn't-yeah. Okay. I'll keep that in mind."

There was silence. Mai could feel Masako staring at her intensely, but she couldn't bring to look her in the eyes. Something about their current situation felt highly uncomfortable, but she couldn't pinpoint why.

She had been getting along so well with Masako lately, too.

"Mai," Naru suddenly called out. "Let's go."

Before he could make a motion to leave, both Masako and Mai asked in unified surprise, "What? Where?"

Without turning, he replied, "Grab a racket; we'll be back in a bit," while he pocketed three tennis balls.

Already dead tired from all the practice, Mai desperately wanted to refuse and head home already, but realizing that she couldn't miss the opportunity of getting lessons from one of the best players she knew, decided she should follow him after all.

Masako suddenly stood up and rather uncharacteristically, cried out sternly toward Oliver, "Where are you both going? You're not actually still playing, after all? If none of the other boys hit with you, Oliver-kun, it is because they want you to get better as quickly as possible. Surely you understand that? If you have time to play around, then shouldn't you spend it focusing on how you help your teammates? You always just do what you want. For once why don't you-"

Naru's voice was startlingly cold and sharp when he curtly responded, "- What I do is none of your business, Hara-san."

Masako clamped her mouth shut in surprise. Her eyes began misting, hurt to be treated so dismissively, but rather than let the tears fall, she breathed deeply and turned her head up, staring intently into a distant lamppost.

Although Masako had him completely misunderstood and spoke out of line, Mai couldn't help but feel sorry for her. However to Mai's chagrin, rather than getting annoyed at Naru for treating her so callously, Masako instead redirected the anger and glared at her. It was at that point that she realized why it was uncomfortable when the three of them were around each other.

Masako was jealous.

Masako had feelings for Naru, that much was obvious. Whether or not Naru reciprocated her feelings, however, was another thing. To be honest, Mai felt that Naru didn't seem to have any special interest in her (not that she was an expert in understanding him. It was just her intuition talking). Then- not to toot her own horn- _she_ comes along, manages to get on a first name basis with the stone-cold captain, and now they were sneaking away together for tennis lessons.

In Masako's perspective, it must really seem like Naru was giving her special treatment.

Mai wouldn't deny that was the case. She was not stupid as to not realize that she had, in fact, become closer to him, but she was not stupid as to believe it was due to some romantic attraction on his part. She just managed to befriend him and have him as a coach. Strictly platonic; strictly professional. Therefore, Masako's jealousy had no basis.

"Wait, Masako-"

But Masako merely turned around and ignored the two of them.

Naru was already almost by the gates when he turned around and irritatedly called out, "Are you coming, or not?"

Mai hung her head and ran after him.

* * *

 **A/N:** Special shout out to _Snavej_ for the beta on this! It's super awesome to have a second pair of eyes to look things over 3 And once again, thank you for reading. Please leave reviews if you can spare some :)


	18. A Step Back and a Step Forward

**Chapter 17**

" _What was that all about? Masako and Naru are totally fighting, aren't they?"_ she thought to herself.

 _Thuck. Thuck._

"Great," she muttered as the ball rebounded outside of her reach. After chasing it some distance off, she quickly shuffled back to her spot and started over.

" _On one hand it's totally unfair for Masako to take her frustration out on me. But on the other hand- I'd totally get it if they were in a relationship. Are Masako and Naru actually an item, after all?_ "

 _Thuck._ _Thuck. Thuck._

She swung, but hit only air.

Luckily Naru was behind her to catch the stray ball this time. She mumbled out a small 'thanks' as he simply threw her another one from his pocket.

" _But could Naru really be…? It just seems so unlikely. But what if they had_ been _a couple in the past? What if they were together and they split on bad terms because Masako did something wrong? Maybe she was too obsessive, too jealous, and it got on his nerves so now he's being a jerk? And now she's afraid he's 'moving on'?"_

She managed four consecutive shots that time before she hit the ball over the wall.

"Oh crap, my bad. I'll get that."

"Get it later. Here." He threw her another ball. "All you need to do is hit more than five consecutive hits."

She noted his very serious, unamused expression hadn't changed since they started, and became more self-conscious about not hitting very well. She took a deep breath, nodded, and tried again.

" _Focus, focus,_ " she told herself, but her exhausted mind kept wandering, especially with the added guilt and annoyance weighing on her mind.

Then she suddenly realized: the whole thing was so stupid.

Why was she even caught in the middle of whatever was going on between him and Masako? How could they both be so unfair? All she wanted was to become friends with the two of them.

She counted three good hits, but with her focus gone, ended up hitting the ball over the wall again. She heard Naru let out a sharp exhale.

"Oh god, I'm really, really sorry. I'll go grab the ball really quick," she said nervously and sprinted away.

When she returned, Naru had shifted position and was now leaning against the fence with his arms crossed, face eerily blank, though his eyes looked cutting. It was clear she was only making his mood worsen by the second.

"Have you really forgotten how to hit so soon?"

Mai bit her lip in a panic, thinking, " _Crap_!" Out loud, she could only apologize and promise to do better.

He didn't even reply.

She tried again, this time focusing intently on making sure she followed the ball with her feet. However, her timing on the swinging motion was off. She stopped, checked herself, and restarted several times, but she never even got past four consecutive hits.

"You're not pivoting. You move like you're made out of wood. You're back to doing rookie mistakes again. Has Matsuzaki-san even been teaching you anything?"

She bristled at this. It was one thing for him to scold her for doing bad, but it was another thing to start berating Matsuzaki-buchou for something she wasn't even responsible for. However, she simply took another deep breath, her shoulders tensing up from getting overworked, and mumbled, "Yes, pivoting."

She made another attempt, but fully aware that Naru was scrutinizing her every move and was getting more restless by the minute, only made her more nervous and she began hitting worse and worse.

Having had enough of her antics, Naru straightened himself up and spat, "Your efforts are pathetic. It was a mistake to do this. If you're not going to take this seriously, then don't waste my time."

Mai stiffened and gripped her racket tighter, felt the rush of blood to her face, and was both embarrassed and furious to be scolded in his typical brusque manner.

How _dare_ he?

As a beginner, wasn't this sort of thing expected? How could he expect perfection so soon when she'd never even really played before in her life? How long did it take _him_ to master the sport, she wondered. And wasn't he the one who called her out here in the first place? And now because of _this_ Masako got angry. Plus it didn't help that he was making her nervous by being irritable and was making it worse by scolding her! And it wasn't like she was _always_ performing badly. Wasn't it him who told her she picked up on things fairly quickly? Was the notion of an 'off-day' an alien concept to him?

To have him say it was a mistake and a waste of time to teach her….

Heat spread throughout her body.

How could he say such a thing?

She glared at him and spat back, "I _am_ taking this seriously! I am putting in the effort, I really am, but I guess I just suck, and I'm exhausted from yesterday's and today's practice, plus there's the homework and studying! And then Masako's angry. And now you. There's just too many things going on at once!"

 _Ease up on me a little!_

But Naru didn't even flinch, nor seemed to take her words into consideration. He coldly pointed out, "It isn't so hard to juggle them. I deal with the same things."

 _And more, since I am a Captain with responsibilities, after all. So why can't you?_

Mai wasn't even sure if he had said those words out loud, or if his eyes just spoke volume of his disappointment and impatience over her pathetic excuses.

She gritted her teeth and scoffed in disbelief.

"Wow. You are an _incredibly_ arrogant bastard, you know that? Though I'm sure that's been pointed out to you before. Not everyone can be _perfection_ like you, can we? Have pity on us _average_ humans," she said scathingly.

He furrowed his brows.

"If getting into an argument is so distasteful to you, then _maybe_ you should stop lashing out at people and stop rubbing your superiority in people's faces! _You_ get into such a pissy mood because _you_ start it, and _you_ bring others down with you! Have you considered that, _Mr. Perfection_?!"

He remained quiet for a few seconds, matching her unrelenting glare. Then, he plastered on a cold smile, but his eyes were devoid of any humor. He replied in a low, icy tone, "Have you sunk so low to be spewing such savage insults? Your sarcasm and spiteful name-calling aside, could you honestly tell me right now that you've been giving it your all, or have you merely been content with your mediocrity?"

He folded his arms. "I had expected more from you."

Those last words pierced her the most. Tears welled in her eyes.

She looked away momentarily, trying to find her voice, but once she spoke the torrent of her anger flowed freely and she gradually became louder. "For one, I have _never_ done anything like this before so it's really taking a toll on me, so _I'm sorry_ if my body just won't respond. And it's not helping that you were already angry before I even started hitting and have been making me nervous! And with you and Masako being unfair- I'm just tired and I can't think straight anymore!" She held up a hand, as if to push him away. "Just- just _don't_ tell me I don't put enough effort. I _want_ to do well, Naru."

Naru bore her retaliation with a deceptively apathetic mien, but his eyes flashed with piercing intensity. His thoughts, however, proved indiscernible to her.

She heaved a breath and wiped her tears, sniffling all the while. "But if this is all a mistake to you and I'm just wasting your time, then how about we just _stop?_ "

There was a long moment of tense silence between them, neither one breaking, but as the seconds ticked by, the situation sunk in.

Little by little, Mai became unsure of herself. She realized she never meant those words, not when she enjoyed tennis too much. Not when she enjoyed hanging out with the team too much. Not when she enjoyed hanging out with _him_ too much.

She didn't want this all to stop.

Although her outburst had given her the relief she needed, having had the chance to reflect she realized that she truly regretted the harshness and foolhardiness of her words.

Naru was only trying to help her get better. As a captain, there was no doubt he had many other things to do, not to mention his school work, and yet he decided to take some time out of his schedule to help her with practice. Of course he'd value his time. It made perfect sense. It was understandable why he'd be upset that his coaching wasn't improving her form at all. And really, there was some truth to what he said, after all. She was a beginner, but that should not be used as an excuse to not do well.

Did she really have any right to claim she'd been giving it her all when she'd been hoping she'd be given a pass for having no experience? What she should have been thinking about was how much more she could put in the effort to catch up in what she lacked. A part of her _had_ been content with mediocrity. Naru was right and she had not realized it for herself.

She felt a wrenching twist in her gut.

"- S-Sorr-"

"- I apolo-"

The two of them froze. They stared at each other and fell quiet, unsure, and waited for the other to finish what they began.

Mai took the initiative. "I'm sorry. You're taking the time to train me and I insult you. I didn't mean to sound so ungrateful and I didn't mean those harsh words... I'm actually really, really thankful for all your help and I'm really sorry I'm not picking it up as quickly as I should… You're right, I've been thinking I'm doing 'good enough' for someone who just started. But I'll do better, promise. Just... _please_ , give me another chance to prove myself."

Naru studied her for a while before nodding slowly.

"And I apologize as well. I can see now that the stress was affecting you. And what happened before was... " he paused and did a slight shake of his head. "Forget what I said; it was merely said in frustration, and I should have realized I'm pushing too hard. There is a limit to what your body can do and it should be respected."

She nodded weakly. Mai twiddled her thumb, tugging slightly at her hair, not quite sure how to proceed now that both of them had admitted to fault. She tried to stifle an oncoming hiccup (she always hated hearing herself make such pathetic noises whenever she cried), but unfortunately she just ended up snorting.

Glancing up from the corner of her eye, she saw Naru attempt to hide a smirk by turning slightly away- and maybe even stop himself from laughing at her expense (though Hell would have to freeze over before any such noise escaped his lips). A small giggle ended up escaping from her lips, and soon, she was laughing and crying at the same time.

Oliver shook his head. "I hope you know you are being ridiculous at the moment."

She wiped the tears from her eyes. Surprisingly, Naru waited patiently for her to collect herself. Once she could properly speak without hitching her breath, she ventured, "If you're still okay with giving me lessons… I would really appreciate it."

To her relief, Naru responded with the tiniest, barely perceptible smile.

"Thursdays should work fine for extra lessons for now until your body can keep up with the rigors of training. We can add more training days later, at your discretion. Since you seem particularly determined right now, let's start over. Do you think your body can still handle it?"

Mai nodded. "But if you think I'm just steadily getting worse, then let's just stop and reconvene next week."

"That sounds fair."

She smiled at him.

"... _Thank you_ , Naru."

* * *

 **A/N:** Honestly, I have no concept of pacing my release for these chapters. I just release when it's ready, so apologies for the random updates.

Thanks to Hannah for looking it over. And again, thank you for reading. Please do not hesitate to leave a comment. It doesn't even have to be very long, I'll still appreciate it :)


	19. Finally, an answer

**Chapter 18**

After the several misunderstandings that culminated into a strange and sudden confrontation among the three of them the day before, Mai was quite surprised to find both Naru and Masako walking together again the next day as if nothing even happened, in all appearances seemingly content in their shared silence.

She sullenly compared that to her own interactions with Naru that morning. Even after already making up and addressing their differences right after their fight, Mai still felt slightly awkward around him. She didn't know if it was because of this that Naru chose to be (even more) quiet around her as well.

However when she studied them again she could not help but wonder if it was just her imagination, or if the way Masako smiled around him now appeared just a little forced. It almost looked... sad. Mai wanted to ask if she was feeling alright, but unfortunately, Masako's anger toward her was apparently not forgotten.

Mai was dismayed to find their relationship reverting back to the colder terms they had at the beginning and wished she could repair it, but between participating in team activities, spending some time with the boys team, taking extra lessons with Naru, and holding study sessions with Keiko, Michiru, and Kashima, she had too much to juggle on her plate and plenty of other things to worry about.

Thus, the nature of Masako and Oliver's curious relationship was left unanswered, and her attempts to befriend the girl had to be put on hold for weeks.

One day, while eating lunch, Mai found herself contemplating her life thus far, and as if he was able to read her thoughts, Gene asked, "Are you feeling overwhelmed with your schedule?"

Mai blinked to clear her head and peeled the wrapper off her onigiri. She gave him a careless shrug. "Why, do I look stressed?"

"Yeah, looks like you could use a massage."

"I'm really good with my hands," Yasuhara interjected innocently at first, before smirking and turning to wink at her. "Interested?"

Mai reddened and Gene choked with laughter.

"Your grandmother was just being kind when she said that, Yasu. Anyway, stop, you're making Mai uncomfortable."

"Oh, sorry. That's fine, the offer was mainly for Gene."

Gene rolled his eyes and lightly punched his friend on the shoulder. Steering the conversation back on track, he said to Mai, "That's your third onigiri, did you even realize?"

"Seeing that I have the other wrappers in front of me, yes, kind of. I just get so hungry now. Am I getting fat?"

"No, it's natural; you are burning a lot of calories now, after all. Yasu and I will be the first ones to warn you if you're getting fat."

Yasuhara flashed her a thumbs up as he slurped down his noodles.

"Oh yeah, Naru told me about how you guys play at the park on Saturdays."

"Yeah, what about?"

"Well, he asked me a couple days ago if I'd like to tag along for tomorrow and I said yes. He hasn't told you yet?"

Gene raised his brow in surprise while Yasuhara began choking on his food. As he roughly patted Yasu in the back, Gene stared at Mai. Feeling a mixture of surprise, giddiness, and confusion, he asked in a tone of undisguised disbelief, "Really? _Noll_. Noll asked you to come?" When Mai merely nodded, he answered, "Well uhm, no, he has not told us."

"Oh no, will I just get in the way?"

Gene immediately shook his head and Yasuhara flailed his arms around. "No, no, not at all. We were just surprised Noll actually asked you out."

"Oh stop, you two. I know what you're insinuating. He's just been helping me with the groundstrokes so he just wanted to see if I'd be interested in playing against people. He didn't… ask me out."

Yasuhara placed a hand on his chin and let out a long, drawn out hum. "But that's probably how a date with Oliver would go. Just tennis practice as a bonding activity. Does he do anything else? Other than tennis and study, I mean. He's not exactly the exciting, romantic kind of guy."

"It isn't like that," she repeated. "And isn't that kind of a mean thing to say?"

"Aww, and you're already defending his honor! Such a wonderful couple you'd be."

Mai shrugged and took a bite of her onigiri. She mumbled through a mouthful, "Gene-kun, please control your pet monkey here. He's misbehaving."

Yasuhara laughed with his jolly, choppy manner and mused, " _I'm_ the pet?"

But Gene was distracted. For some reason, in the back of his mind, Gene was glad that Mai was refusing to acknowledge it as such, yet at the same time, he felt a pang of disappointment. How interesting would it be if Noll had actually attempted to ask her out on a date and masked it as an attempt to help her train?

"Okay, okay, I'm just teasing you, Taniyama-san. It's just surprising, is all. Add the fact that he's actually giving you personal lessons."

When Mai tilted her head quizzically, Gene smiled and replied, "What Yasu means is someone back then had asked Noll for help but he refused them outright. Said he wasn't interested. And now you say he actually initiated it. It doesn't sound like him at all."

"Really? Who--"

But at that time Gene saw someone over her shoulder and greeted, "Hey, Masako-chan."

Mai turned around. Masako briefly looked at her, then back to Gene and Yasuhara, said a rather curt hello, then went back on her way.

\--000--

"Kashima."

"Ha?"

Mai bit her lip and tugged on his jacket to slow him down. She took out her phone to look at the time and calculated they both still had plenty of time to make it to their own respective practice in time.

"It's a weird question," she began awkwardly, "and you might say it's none of my business, but I'm just super curious..."

"...Okay?"

Mai stood on her tiptoe and leaned closer to him, but she was much too short to even reach his shoulder, so she motioned for him to bend down to her height. Kashima frowned a little but did as he was asked.

She whispered, "Uhm, so are Masako and Naru dating?"

Kashima straightened up and raised his brow at her. "...Why did you have to whisper that to my ears?"

"J-just answer me."

"Why are you so curious?"

Mai crossed her arms and tapped her feet. "Are you going to answer, or not?"

"I'm surprised at you, Taniyama," Kashima replied with a smirk. "I thought you and Gene-senpai were the ones--"

Mai pinched his sides, making him jump up in surprise. "What in the world are you talking about? I'm just curious. Naru is a friend and I think Masako hates me because of that."

Kashima rubbed his side and mused, "Oh, she is rather cold to you, isn't she?"

"See, even _you_ noticed."

"Well, I don't really keep track of things like that, but according to the rumors they are. They're always together. I'm sure they've heard the rumors themselves, and since neither of them refute it, I guess people take it to mean they are."

For some reason, this news made her sad.

No wonder Masako had been so jealous. What was Naru thinking? How could he treat his own girlfriend like that?

Yet at the same time, she felt a twinge of… jealousy? Apparently Naru already made a closer bond with someone else. For some reason she had hoped what they shared was special...

She mentally shook her head. The two of them talked a little bit more before splintering off and heading to their own side of the school grounds.

\--000--

She was in the middle of working on her homework when the urge to find out once and for all gnawed at her. Looking at the phone sitting at her desk (Keiko would have been disappointed to know that her tip about removing all distractions away was left unheeded), Mai contemplated her next move.

She reached for it and opened up Line.

 _Hey. Busy?_

She waited a few seconds. Then saw the three dots by his name, indicating that he read her message and was in the process of replying.

 _Lol. Supposed to be. But I got bored and started messing with my phone. What's up?_

She snorted.

 _I just had a question._

For a minute, she hesitated.

Eugene jumped in on the radio silence.

 _HW?_

 _No, personal. About Masako and Naru. Just curious... are they dating? o_O??_

She watched in amusement as the three ellipses flashed, then disappeared, then reappeared again. Why couldn't Gene make up his mind about what to say?

Eventually he managed, _Can I call you?_

 _Sure._

Her phone rang a few seconds later and she picked up, greeting him with, "Hey, sorry."

However to her surprise, Gene was laughing on the other line. "You heard those rumors then?"

"Oh. I asked someone, honestly, and they told me there is a rumor like that going around. But that's not really a confirmation, so that's why I figured I should ask you. What's so funny?"

"Curious?" His tone was teasing.

Mai sighed loudly over the phone and retorted, "Come on. I really just want to know because if they are, then it would explain why Masako hates me. I just really want to be friends with both of them, but if I'm making Masako uncomfortable--"

"--I'm sure Masako doesn't _hate_ you. She just, how should I say it, probably doesn't know how to interact with you."

"Well she certainly doesn't like me. I think she's misunderstanding my relation to Naru."

"Well if you think that then how come you don't just apologize anyway and explain the situation?"

Mai frowned. "Because if they're not in any sort of relationship, then I don't see why I need to apologize for being Naru's friend. I have as much of a right to hang out with him as anyone."

This made Gene pause. Finally, he continued, "So what if they are together after all? Will you stop hanging out with Noll?"

"... No. I'll apologize to her for making her uncomfortable, but I'll explain that Naru and I are friends. Together we can figure out how I can still remain friends with both of them without getting in the way."

Gene murmured something she didn't quite catch, but before she could ask him to repeat himself, he blurted out, "I'm not in the habit of divulging information about Noll behind his back (believe it or not), but I'll tell you that they are _not_ dating."

"Not dating?"

"Nope."

"Why don't they correct the rumors then?"

"Eh. Noll doesn't worry himself over minor things like that. And because it's proven useful to him."

It was only now Mai realized that Naru didn't have as many girls approaching him as they did Gene. She had attributed that to his less than stellar personality, but she supposes this makes sense as well.

But "proven useful"? Was it a planned ruse? Did they make an agreement to act that way? But in all the times Mai happened to glance at Masako and Naru together, Masako always glowed. It was subdued, but Mai could feel it. It seemed genuine on her part...

"Does that make things easier for you?"

"I… don't know. I want to talk to her about it. There isn't a need for me to apologize, but I want to understand her better."

Upon realizing something, she suddenly laughed and said, "Weird, I've never gotten into a fight with another girl before over a boy."

"Really? Well I'm glad I sort of helped you navigate through it."

"You did. A little bit," she teased.

"Maybe a little more than a little bit."

"Sure, I'll give you that. Well, anyway, I'll let you go now. Finish up your homework. I still have a lot of mine to go through."

Gene laughed. "Roger."

With a happier sigh, she leaned on her table and said, "Thanks for the help, Gene-kun. See you tomorrow."

"You're very welcome. And until tomorrow."

-0-

After hanging up, Gene pocketed is phone and headed to his brother's room. He knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for his brother's response.

As usual, Noll was hunched over his desk, his homework already finished and pushed off to the side. Gene took a peek over his shoulders and saw that he was currently working on an advanced physics text book he must have borrowed from the library. He snickered.

"Oliver Davis, seventeen year old male, single. Moody with tendencies to be cold and snobbish, with rare impulses to be kind and supportive. Hobbies include tennis and hard sciences." Gene winked. "We should set you up a dating profile."

He was left ignored. Noll did not even peel his eyes off his book.

"What should we put for your future plans? Professional tennis player, or physics professor?"

Even knowing that he was merely teasing, Noll responded, "A career in professional tennis is unpredictable and paved with many obstacles. A career in education might be the better option."

"True. But I think you have a really good chance of doing it," Gene replied sincerely.

When Noll shrugged, he sighed and plopped down on the bed. He changed the subject. "Mai just called me earlier. She asked about the nature of your relationship with Masako."

Noll had no reply once again.

"She wanted to know because Masako's been giving her a hard time lately. Did you even realize that, idiot?"

Noll didn't answer immediately, but eventually, he said, "It's none of my concern."

Gene felt a little annoyed at this. He frowned and sat up the bed. "It _is_ your concern. It's about you."

At this, Noll closed his book, raised his brow, and turned to him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Gene sighed. "Masako's feeling a bit jealous. You're always so cold to her and yet you give Mai all the attention."

Noll frowned, in the creases of his brow were the words, 'I _don't give Mai all my attention.'_ Out loud, he said flatly, "Hara-san isn't entitled to be jealous about that. Who I prefer to tolerate is my business. It is exactly that kind of controlling attitude that repels me in the first place."

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that." Gene shrugged and plopped himself down again. He felt bad for Masako, but he could see Noll's point.

"Is that all? Or do you have a problem with my answer as well?" his brother challenged.

"What? No, I agree with you there, but I think I could relate with Masako-chan a little…" he felt Noll's stare on him, but didn't feel like elaborating. Truth be told, he still wasn't completely sure what he was feeling.

Was this jealousy toward Noll, or was it toward Mai? The twins stayed in silence for a while, with only the sound of Noll's pen scratching against the paper. Gene found himself unconsciously following the trail of his thoughts and for some reason it fell back to Mai once again.

"I told the truth, of course."

"Congratulations."

"She seemed relieved."

Noll paused once more.

"While we were talking, she said that if you were dating, she still wanted to find a way to be friends with both of you. And if you were not dating, then she didn't see any reason why she needed to apologize for being your friend." Gene smiled. "I liked that. Mai can be quite feisty sometimes, eh?"

He heard Noll give a tiny scoff. "'Sometimes'?"

The way Noll said it made his chest ache a little bit. It gave him a vague revelation of just how close those two had become outside of anyone else's view. How did the two of them interact when it was just the two of them? And why did that bother him so much?

He sighed and turned to face the wall. He would sleep it off.

 _A/N: I'm sorry for the delay. I've just been sitting on this chapter for a while, but I didn't have the energy to edit it... Anyway, it is here now! Thank you so much for being patient. And please review if you get the chance :)_


	20. Tennis Match in the Park?

_A/N: *snicker* Just an homage to GH canon titles. Even though it's not a grammatically correct sentence?_

 **Chapter** **19**

Oliver sat down on the bench and wiped the back of his neck with a towel. Since his activity level had decreased significantly over the weeks, his body had fallen out of its peak condition. Now it took him just an hour of moderate activity to feel the onset of muscle fatigue; even just feeding the balls for their practice drills and chasing the easier shots got him slightly winded. Gene had noticed right away and offered to do the feeding, nudging him off the courts and urging him to get a drink. He had no choice but to oblige.

It startled him, how quickly the body adjusts itself to idleness. He cursed under his breath and made a mental note to let his doctor know later today that he would like to start reintroducing jogging into his daily routine.

Gene was situated mid-court with a basket full of tennis balls, relentlessly feeding Mai forehand shots, which she managed to hit cleanly toward the ad-side service box. Oliver had counted up to fifteen consecutive shots so far.

For the sixteenth ball, Gene intentionally fed it a little wide so that Mai had to sprint to catch up to it. After she returned it, instead of letting the ball hit the ground, Gene moved up closer to the net and intercepted it mid-air with an easy volley and hit it straight at her, temporarily catching Mai by surprise, but she quickly scrambled to return it.

"Go for it, Mai," Gene called out as he shot another easy one back at her. "Try to put the ball away."

Mai scrunched her face up in determination and tried to go wide with her shots, but no matter where she put it, the balls simply were not fast and heavy enough to go through his defenses. He was always there no matter how far she tried to pull him out of position. Finally, after several more attempts, Gene took a stance and did his newly perfected swinging volley shot. It zoomed past her backhand side, well out of her reach. She had a very surprised look on her face as she realized she was barely able to follow the path of the ball.

Gene laughed. "Sorry, sorry. I wanted to see how you'd deal with that one. But that was amazing though, we rallied for a while!"

Mai turned to him and smiled widely. "Yeah, that was fun! Although we only got a good rally going because you were going super easy on me."

"Well I was also trying to go for consistency."

"Yeah, we were very consistent, weren't we? I guess power will come next after. And that's still a really amazing shot, Gene-kun! You're getting better and better at it."

"Thank you, thank you."

Mai turned to look at Yasuhara, who had been out to the side, behind the baseline all this time, waiting for his turn. "What should I have done, Yasuhara-san?"

"For that winning shot, I don't think you could have done much about. But prior to that you were trying to get a ball past Gene, right? So you attempted to pull him out wide, but Gene is too fast for the balls you hit, not to mention the field is naturally narrower up at the net since a player would only have to move a small distance to cover every angle versus the distance they'd have to cover if they were at the baseline. This means it's really difficult to attack linearly.

In a situation like that where the opponent is faster, overpowers, and out-positions you, the best option is to play smarter," Yasuhara offered, speaking from experience. "A high lob to the back would pull Gene away from his strong net play and break his tempo. Then from there you have two options: restart the rally from the baseline, or you yourself move up to take the net while Gene is in retreat."

Mai nodded. "I see, I see… yes. And Gene-kun's backhand is much weaker, so I should have exploited that more as well."

Yasuhara smirked. "You picked up on that, huh? Precisely."

"Ugh, I just wish I could control my shots better so that I could try it out! But thank you, Yasuhara-san. I'm going to take a short break now so Gene-kun is all yours."

"Oh yes, I like the sound of that."

From the other side of the court, Gene called out, "I heard that. You guys aren't looking at me, so I'm letting you know that I'm winking seductively right now."

Mai jogged out of the court with an amused chuckle and met Oliver's eyes. She motioned at the empty space beside him on the bench with a tilt of her head.

He replied with a careless gesture, letting her know he didn't mind, and instead said, "You've gotten a lot better."

"Thanks to you." She plopped down next to him wiped her face with her towel. "Hot, huh?"

"Stay hydrated." She pointed at an unopened water bottle closest to him so he lazily reached over to grab it for her. It was warm.

He turned to her and asked, "Don't you have a cold one?"

"I don't have a fancy bag to keep things cool."

Olver sighed, placed the bottle back down where he took it, and instead reached over to his bag and procured a new bottle, wordlessly handing it to her.

"This one's yours, though."

"I wouldn't give you my only one. Obviously I've got one more."

She opened her mouth to retort, but thought better of it. She took it from him and said her thanks, then gulped it down thirstily. After consuming half the bottle, she put it down and sighed in contentment. "Yep, cold water is best water."

Oliver let out a tiny scoff and turned his attention back to Gene and Yasuhara, who were now playing out a point. The strong contrast between Yasuhara's safe and strategic approaches against Gene's flashy and intuitive plays pleased him, and with him temporarily out of the lineup, he fully appreciated just how well those two worked together to be a pillar for the team.

"You really must be itching to play so bad, huh?"

He turned around. "What?"

"You're looking very broody. Life not worth living without tennis?"

Oliver rolled his eyes and chose not to humor her with any response, choosing instead to focus back on the play before him.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I'm just teasing. Honestly though, I think we all understand your frustration. Playing is so much fun, after all, and you play it best out of everyone. How do you feel? Are your injuries getting better?"

"It isn't nearly as bad as before. I've kept off it for eight weeks now; I should be able to go back soon."

Mai scooted closer to him in excitement. "Really? No, wait, are you sure? You have to be careful, you don't want to re-injure it just as you're on your way to coming back."

Oliver sighed and dismissed her worries aside. "I wouldn't do something so idiotic. I've been thinking of easing back into it."

"You, not do something idiotic?" Mai teased. "Right. But I guess you have been good about your word lately, so I guess I'll take your word for it."

Gene and Yasuhara finished their point and approached the bench, reaching into their bags to grab their water in concert. After cooling down and having some minor chit chat, Gene stood up and asked his twin, "Your arm feeling good?"

"It's fine."

"I was thinking we could play doubles between the four of us. But no right arm for you."

Oliver frowned. "I am not arrogant enough to play a match against anyone with my non-dominant arm, Gene."

Amazed at his humility, the three of them looked at each other and couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Okay, to be honest I mainly said it for our sake since you'll probably still wipe the floor with us, but I also suggested it for your sake so you don't hurt yourself. Besides, it'll be funny to see you flail around."

"You realize that doesn't make me want to participate."

"Come on, I just want to play some fun doubles."

Oliver was about to say something, but Mai's next words stopped it in his throat.

"I've never played a real doubles game before! Outside of practice with the girls, I mean."

The twins looked at her, then back to each other. Gene gave him a smug look and grinned slyly, which Oliver returned with an angry scowl. Eventually, he sighed and said, "Fine. Yasuhara and Ge-"

But Gene immediately grabbed Mai's hand and pulled her up, exclaiming, "Yasu and Noll against me and Mai! Mai and Yasu are pretty good baseliners, so I'll support Mai with my net play, and Yasu can support you. You're an all-rounder anyway."

He was an all-rounder, provided he was playing right-handed. How could he be expected to play at a competitive level with his left? Either Eugene was picking on him, or he was giving too much credit to his abilities. However, since Gene had already dragged Mai away and were already standing on one side of the court talking about their possible strategy, he sighed and stood up, nodding at Yasuhara and saying, "I will most likely play terribly. I apologize in advance."

Yasuhara laughed heartily. "It's kind of surreal, this, honestly. I don't think I ever saw you play badly before, so I'm actually looking forward to having your back."

Oliver sighed.

-0-

As he expected, he was the worst one of them four. He hated how difficult it was to follow through with his form in a way that felt natural, moving worse than a beginner: choppy and uncoordinated. And what made it more irritating was how amused they were at his dismal performance, and how Gene and Mai would cheer and just be obnoxious overall with their excessive hugs and high-fives whenever they got the better of him.

What the hell were they expecting would happen?

At least he got to see the fruits of their labor. Thanks to the conditioning with the girls team, his lessons to help with her form, and most of all due to her perseverance, Mai had significantly improved in her technical abilities.

Additionally, she was proving to be a lot smarter than he originally gave her credit for. Once during training he had told her that when playing doubles she must continually probe for the weaker opponent and never hesitate to exploit their weakness.

It seemed she really took the advice to heart.

After making the mistake of hitting to his temporary "backhand" (which was actually his dominant arm), she cursed out loud. After that, she did all that she could to pick on him, hitting mainly to his left-handed "forehand", which had very little control in directing the ball and earned her team some points. Following her unforgiving tactic, Gene began doing the same, and soon Yasuhara and Noll's score fell behind.

They were now currently at two-to-five, only one game away from losing.

Oliver studied her.

He could see her eyes flare in determination and he marvelled at her positively predatory aura on the court. She was not at all thinking of holding back in attacking him. The only thing he lamented was how her technical abilities did not yet reach up to par with her will.

He walked up to his teammate. "Yasuhara-san. I haven't said anything in hopes you were simply getting accustomed to it, but you've really been holding back on attacking her serves. Her power is weak and it floats too much, so you should rip on it."

"What, why?"

"Also she's become more confident of her forehand. Pick on her backhand now."

"What, that's mean! You want to win that bad?"

Oliver did not respond and moved back to his position. Without looking back, he said, "Do it."

"Five-two, love all," Mai called out.

Precisely as he said, Mai placed a weak serve near the front of the court. It floated slow enough that he could see Yasuhara hesitate before he hit it wide back to her backhand.

Mai gave a tiny, startled yelp, bit her lip, and moved after the ball but was too late to catch up to it.

When Oliver turned to move back to the baseline, he heard Yasuhara mutter how mean it was to do that.

Unfortunately when it came his turn to return he wasn't able to do much attacking, though not for the lack of trying. He hit it back to her, aiming at her backhand, but the ball was sloppy so she returned it back easily. When Yasuhara picked up for him, Gene intercepted and hit a winner.

The next points played out similarly, with the two teams struggling to keep afloat.

Eventually it came to a match point for Gene and Mai. Unfortunately for them Yasuhara was receiving so it would be difficult for them to close it out.

Oliver watched Mai take a deep breath. He could almost see her imagining how the play would go and making a calculated gamble.

She threw the ball up in the air and served as usual (he made a mental note that she was ready to go over serves next time they do their lessons), and shifted to the balls of her feet. As he had done for the entire game, Yasuhara stepped up and attacked the ball, hitting it wide toward her backhand, but Yasuhara didn't realize (nor expected) how she had preempted his move.

It seemed she realized they were exploiting her weaknesses, so to mitigate it, she had sprinted to the sidelines where she expected he would hit it, and, knowing that her backhand sucked, positioned herself so that she instead would have a nice, forehand shot to return the ball with.

Full with determination and possibly graced with much luck, she hit it at exactly the right time with only a tiny amount of spin so that it was almost a flat return with a lot of speed. She managed to aim the ball toward him, which he managed to return back, but once again Gene was already up at the net, ready to intercept and put it away.

Mai had made a very risky gamble. Had Yasuhara been watching her as keenly as Oliver had been doing, he could have realized what she was doing and ended it right at the beginning.

Gene was the first one to exclaim, "Game! Mai and I win!" He ran up to Mai and hugged her exuberantly, almost lifting her up in his arms. "That was a great shot!"

Mai laughed freely. "Thanks, Gene-kun! And nice finish!"

As they pulled away from each other, Gene gloated, "Bet you guys didn't see that coming."

Oliver's eyes automatically sought hers out. "I knew it was coming, but I couldn't do anything about it." When Mai's eyes widened at this, he couldn't help but give her a smile at her, proud of her accomplishment. In a much calmer voice than his twin, he said, "Well done, Mai."

Her eyes lit up and she reddened to her ears. One hand went up to clutch at the collar of her shirt and she murmured breathlessly, "Th-thanks, Naru."

After looking into his eyes again, she became flustered and retreated back to the bench, saying she desperately needed water.

Oliver tilted his head slightly, confused at her actions, when Gene jumped into his field of vision with a strange expression.

"What?"

Gene quickly replaced the expression on his face with a laugh. "Nothing. Just wanted to say good game. Your left hand sucks. For some reason I was expecting you to be secretly ambidextrous."

Oliver scoffed. "Idiot."

-00000-

Gene made his way to where Yasuhara and Noll stood and joined them in the queue, making sure the younger girls behind them were okay with him suddenly cutting in. They nodded their heads in approval and amidst their giggles, told him they didn't mind.

He leaned on Oliver's shoulder on asked, "Is Mai tagging along again with us next week? Eh? Eh?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Did you ask her out again?"

"I told her she was welcome to tag along if she wanted."

Yasuhara made some tutting noise. "That's not the proper way to ask a lady, Oliver-kun."

Oliver merely shrugged.

Gene and Yasuhara laughed at his nonchalant reply. When Gene peeled off from his brother, he caught Ayako about to walk past them without seeming to notice their presence.

"Ayako-senpai," he called out. "Hey, I don't think I've ever seen you around here in the cafeteria."

She turned to look at him in surprise and gave the three of them a curt nod. "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize it was you three. There's just so many bodies here," she said in a grimace. "I hate crowds. Ugh. I usually pack lunch and stay inside the classroom, but Noriko feels bad that we always say no to that fool's invitation so I just decided to go along with it."

"Are you speaking of Takigawa-san…?"

"Who else would I mean?" she replied haughtily. "By the way Oliver, thanks for the tip with that new drill. I am seeing major improvements with everyone."

Oliver merely nodded.

"I've been wondering how it is that Mai went from total beginner to having one of the best forms in the team. Well, she's always had good form to begin with, but it's really coming along together lately. She tells me she's been putting in some extra practice time with you guys."

"She does her best," Yasuhara commented. "This must be what it feels like to be a father. It's nice to hear we're raising her well."

"She's really quick at picking up things, isn't she?" Gene asked no one in particular. "Also it doesn't help that she's got Oliver giving her private lessons."

Ayako smiled. "The way she's going, she'll get good enough to join varsity before the end of the year."

Oliver turned away. "The other girls will probably end up shunning her because of it."

Ayako frowned. "The girls wouldn't do that. They all get along so well."

"Is that so?And how would you feel if she gets good enough to replace you in singles one, Matsuzaki-san?" he asked nonchalantly. "Someone joins the team late without prior training and suddenly, in the span of a few months, ends up outplaying everybody in the team?"

Ayako bit her lip and fell silent. Gene and Yasuhara shared an uncertain glance as Ayako and Oliver stared at each other in a deadlock. Finally, after much contemplating, Ayako sighed.

"That has crossed my mind, to be honest, and at first I was resentful." Before Oliver could say anything, she continued, "You know some people just have all the talent, while some of us have to work thrice as hard just to catch up to make up for any lack of special abilities. I don't think Mai is especially talented in tennis. I think her talent is her tenacity and dedication. She puts in the most effort out of all of us, humbly accepting the fact that she started off as the weakest. I can't deny the hard work and dedication she puts into it, so when I think about it that way, I realize that it's not fair that I resent her for it. It just means I have to work even harder to stay ahead. She's a good motivator, that's for sure. And I believe the rest of my team will learn to see it that way as well when it comes to it. You can choose to believe that, or not."

Oliver said nothing in return.

"See you guys around," Ayako finished, waving her hand dismissively before walking away.

" _So he was worried about that, huh_?" Gene mused to himself as he watched his brother walk up to the counter and order his meal. It was the first time Noll ever vocally voiced concern for someone else outside the circle of their family. Not that Noll never cared about others, he just tended to internalize it and made no show of it to anyone, sometimes not even him.

There was definitely a change going on with his brother and he didn't know whether he welcomed it, or dreaded it.

 _A/N: Yay! I've been wanting to write this chapter for the longest time! Thank you for all the reviews you've given, and as always, thank you so much for taking the time to read. Reviews really keep me going, so don't hesitate to leave one!_


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